Pretty chuffed to be involved in this series of that speaks of the  breadth of what love means and how it manifests in ways that are vital to our well being – these are stories that can be told a million different ways. 
The #AlisWedding team, director Fadia Abboud and photographer @hodaafshar, are proud to launch their special project, ‘11 True Love Stories’. Drawn from interviews with eleven Muslim-Australians, these powerful and personal stories of love and marriage remind us that love is universal

Here are eleven of them- with some familiar faces in the mix ❤️

11 true love stories 
S/O to all the @alisweddingmovie team for this portrait series! Much fun was had ?? #aliswedding #love #portraits #family #connection #belonging #identity #australianmuslim #stories #diversity #endxenophobia #endislamophobia 

This is a transcript of my story and accompanying portrait:

“I grew up in country Victoria. We were brown migrants in a very Anglo town – I say brown pea in a white pod. Mum was a community health nurse and Dad was the Forensic Pathologist at the local hospital in Bendigo.
We grew up with a rich culture of expressing and learning about Indian heritage from music and language and dance. There was the Indo- Australian club that my parents were very much a part of, which showcased all the families’ children, who would either sing a song or dance in their native Indian dialect. We were the Chopra Sisters. We would perform at the clubs – the Rotary club, the Indo Australia club, church groups.
My mum had a beautiful voice – she still does, and my dad also sang and played harmonium, the keyboard and the accordion. I think their love of music and passing that down to us was one of the ways that they showed us belonging and love and identity.
Being an Australian Muslim women in 2017 I want to set an example to my kids in different ways. Relationship wise, I hope they marry a Muslim, who gets them. For me, if I could tell them anything, it would be, to marry someone who is coming from the same place. I don’t mean geographically; I mean spatially, I mean their sense of humour, their politics, their emotional connection, it’s all from growing up together.
An Algerian background Australian born guy is going to have more in common with my Indian background Australian born daughter than an Indian from the North of India. Just because they speak a similar language and like the same curries doesn’t necessarily make for a sustainable relationship! Compatibility counts.”