What I’ve discovered through travelling solo as a Muslim woman

I remember distinctly feeling the need to get out of my hometown. A friend at the time, who was also a Muslim woman and a writer, suggested Malta as a destination. As a hijabi, she found it safe for Muslim women and had no issue. She had asked, as someone who travelled frequently for work, why I had not travelled by myself before. I could not answer her. I recall feeling this fear of the unknown.

It was soon after that conversation that I found myself walking down the promenade in Marsaxlokk,…