My thoughts on the Book Broken—(Not a Halal Love Story) by Fatima Bala

Hear me out with an open mind please… 😂

Such a fine melody of lust and guilt

I read Broken—(not a Halal Love Story) by Fatima Bala and in my book club, it brought about discussions.

I love how she addresses issues faced by the religious community and all but I can't help but see how the book emphasizes how good girls end up with bad boys. Or that men change because of women.

I don't like how Ahmad Babangida looks like an elephant built with the parts of so many animals in my head.

He is industrious, with masters, and a British accent while living in Canada, has a startup, rides an Audi, owns a bad boy bike, doesn't mind what he eats, still has time to play football, is muscular and chiseled, wears Patek's wrist watches, and has business partners in Japan. Ahn ahn—😅 only one person.

The most annoying part is where her scarf fell off her head and this guy kissed her instead.

Why did the author see the need to liken her to Eitrean, or Somalian beauty? Nigerian Arewa girls are stunning and one of the most beautiful beings to walk this earth. She should not have made that comparison.

Her scarf being off might have indicated he saw her natural beauty and was overwhelmed hence him kissing her. I felt alarmed tbh. This girl is 18 or so and Ahmad Babangida is far into life than she is.

With books like this, I am not surprised women fall for Tinder Swindlers and bad boys.

We had a long discussion in my book club and my friend Amira pointed out that this lust which most males in the Arewa community get away with is why they seek Christian girls and lead them on solely for sex. She said she didn't pity the girls who fall for it because the signs are always there for you to see that this bad boy would go and find a good girl to marry and keep in an unsatisfactory marriage.

The heart of the author is right on the issues she seemed to address with this book, but the execution and the characters just left questionable marks for me.

It was a beautiful read overall, it's just sad I cannot relate. I live like my mind is 35 which makes it hard for me to like Ahmad Babangida—he almost came off as a fraudster for me even. I didn't like him well enough for my babe—Fa’iza.

Lust and guilt tho… surprisingly, this book had strong critics. I mean look at Arewa Tiktok, stories of noods fly every day. Every day two girls are fighting over one boy who doesn't give two fucks about them.

Look at the school incident that trended on X about the bullying of that schoolgirl, it was because of a boy. So are we all just pretending that these people don't know what “Kissing and sexual things,” are?

There is a lot to be said. This book surely sparks conversations but I can’t help but feel that while it is educating on the issue prevalent it doesn’t do so from the perspective of offering something new on how the growing youths—girls mainly, can have more ownership of their agency.

I also feel that many girls like the book because of how Ahmad Babangida is portrayed but that is far from reality. In reality, his character needs to be studied because how are you a startup founder and wearing a Patek wristwatch? He has questionable character tbh but for the love and peace of those who enjoyed his character I shall keep the 500-plus word review I wrote on his character flaws away.

Kudos to Fatima Bala, she dared and wrote a book that sparks conversations—a positive thing.

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You can let me know your unpopular opinion or in-between thoughts if you have read the book.

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Thanks for reading ♡