Smashing the Glass Ceiling: Sufi Malik and Discovering the "I" in Identity

    Can love be creative? I’ve asked myself this question a lot recently. In terms of being open about relationships and love, would that be a creative process in and of itself? I think yes. Love is bold, love is brave, love is a leap into the void, much like creativity. To love is to be creative, even when you don’t realize it.

I found Sufi (Sundas) Malik and her girlfriend Anjali Chakra when they went viral for their queer, interfaith relationship in the summer of 2019. Sufi Malik, a 24 year-old New York native, is a social media influencer, photographer, artist, and writer. She describes New York as “chaos”, but a place where she was “thriving in (her) creativity”. Her professional moniker derives from the philosophy of Sufism, an inner mystical dimension of Islam. Born in Pakistan, Sufi emanates from a religious Muslim family. In South Asian households and even in Western society, being queer and Muslim is quite an unorthodox experience. Yet, Sufi explained how acceptance amongst her Desi community came with a mix of reactions and emotions. Growing up in a predominantly South-Asian neighborhood in the States, she described her childhood as a diaspora, feeling alienated from her identity and the difficulties of coming out to a conservative, South Asian household. Sufi’s coming out story (which can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rvSmXD1-1g) discusses her experiences with heavy rejection and denial amongst her family and community. In Desi households, the question that stands above all is “Log kya kahenge”, a Hindi phrase that translates to “What will people think?”. This narrative is a predominant one, especially for first-generation children who experience the complexities of the American dream while upholding the values and standards defined by their cultural/ethnic roots. When her relationship went viral in 2019, she was hit with a lot of backlash for her sexuality, but also for her interfaith relationship (between a Hindu and a Muslim) which is often seen as a taboo for the Desi community. 

Upon the isolation she faced when coming out, Sufi persisted, illustrating her identity as a Muslim and as a member of the LGBTQ+ community through art, photography and poetry. Her identity as a Muslim following Sufism was a key component of her identity and her poetry. 

She writes,

“I loved someone so dearly, I saw God in them 

and when they left,

I loved myself so dearly, I saw God in myself and everything around me”. 

Sufi moved out of her family home in 2019 to surround herself with the support she deserved and went onto publishing her poetry in magazines and exhibiting her photography in professional galleries. Today, she works as an art teacher, working with children to express their true selves through the very creative ventures that helped express herself. Her creative process is seen in her photography as she attempts to self-capture her struggles and her identity. In a specific series of photographs, she focused on depicting her masculinity by shaving to describe the dichotomy of masculine and feminine features within everyone. In an interview she expressed, “I think the best part of women being comfortable is being able to express your masculinity, right?”. She also talked about how she incorporates her masculinity in her fashion, exemplifying her prideful identity. Overall, Sufi described photography and art as a way to speak her own truths and express the very parts of her identity that stems from her emotions. Her simple message in all her pieces: be true to yourself and all will follow. 

Sufi reflects a lot of the creative personality discussed in the Readings 5. Csikszentmihalyi describes the creative personality as “individuals (who) are remarkable for their ability to adapt to almost any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals” (Csikszentmihalyi 51). This is clearly evident in Sufi’s adaptation to new environments and communities and her desires to break free from the boundaries that held her back from her true self.  Even with the constraints she faced within her community, her adaptation to embrace them and transform them into art illustrates the ways in which constraints furthered her creative process. Furthermore, her creative process is an unconscious one. In a lot of her works, she described incubation periods where she felt unmotivated to produce work with a lack of inspiration. Her best pieces often come from “bursts of nostalgia”. She described her artistic process as a continuum, finding it hard to turn away from her work while she was invested in it because the ideas would “flee” from her. These “aha” moments illustrate insight that springs into the conscious after an unconscious incubation period discussed in Reading 4 by Jason van Steenburgh.

I’d say Sufi is a “Middle-C” creative. While she hasn’t transformed the realm of photography or art, I feel like she has shattered a few glass ceilings in the South Asian LGBTQ+ community. A lot of her work incorporates South Asian clothing and a masculine rendition of very feminine pieces. Her style is pretty transformative to the realm of Desi couture. Furthermore, her art holds a plethora of values and meaning behind them. While they are artistic renditions of her emotions, her photography and poetry is relatable and the outspoken manner of her identity via her YouTube channel allows other Desi LGBTQ members find community and acceptance amidst the religious/cultural standards that confine them. I feel like creativity is often associated with a product. Art, photos, poetry, performance. But here, I feel like her creativity is the feeling of love itself, which is quite extraordinary to me. I feel them when I see her photos and read her poetry. In a lot of ways, her creative products inspire many to be prideful in their identity and has guided many interfaith couples to be brave in the ways in which they navigate their relationships because after all, love is love.

http://www.sufisun.com/ 

https://www.instagram.com/sufi.sun/?hl=en 

https://www.insider.com/same-sex-couple-took-pictures-in-traditional-south-asian-clothes-2019-12#a-california-based-couple-named-sufi-malik-and-anjali-chakra-met-on-tumblr-1 

http://gaysifamily.com/2020/01/13/a-conversation-with-sufi-malik/

Reading 5: Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1996). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of discovery and invention. New York: Harper/Collins. - Chapter 3

Reading 4: Insight by J. Jason van Steenburgh, Jessica I. Fleck, Mark Beeman, and John Kounios