Kaighla Um Dayo

Things That Shatter Kaighla Um Dayo

Winner of the 2019 Daybreak Press Book Award for Best Non-fiction Biography/Memoir, Things That Shatter is a "superbly written... honest, gritty... page-turner will have you either nodding sagely as you recall your own experiences or making a map of what to avoid - but either way you'll be in awe of Kaighla, her son, and their journey."


In 2009, Kaighla-a young, single mother from the Midwest, and a fresh convert to Islam-married the Egyptian sheikh of a mosque in Brooklyn. Unbeknownst to her, he hadn't divorced his wife back home and was about to be deported. Two years later, she moved with him, her son, and their baby girl to his hometown in rural Egypt, where she was abused and neglected-along with his first wife-for the next four years.


A story about what happens when Muslim women are broken by Muslim men and find the courage to heal themselves through the real Islam, Things That Shatter aims to shed light on abuse and healing within the Muslim community and to help vulnerable women protect themselves from men like him.


More than anything, this story is a Muslim convert's re-declaration of faith that there is no God but God, and it serves as a reminder that women have intrinsic worth in God's eyes, beyond and outside of their relationships to the men in their lives.