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The Churails
All-girl taqwacore band playing in Kansas City but not from there, from the 2009 novel Osama van Halen by Michael Muhammad Knight.
When Bombay Unger finally felt ready to do a show, Amazing Ayyub made a series of long-distance phone calls on Yusuf Islam's parents' phone and brought a handful of taqwacore bands to Kansas City. For a weekend they lived in the garage with Ayyub, drinking bhang lassi and making clumsy Fajr prayers. One band, the Churails, was all girls, with a bass player sporting a classic taqwacore burqa covered in band patches.
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Next came the Churails , fronted by a petite desi in a wife beater , wrapped in a giant Palestinian flag , and wearing spiked bracelets . The bass player still had on her riot - grrrl niqab . Amazing Ayyub and Yusuf Islam blended into the crowd while Bombay Unger stood on the edge, arms crossed.
"As-salamu alaikum," the Churail singer told the audience, getting her salams in return." This first song is dedicated to Amina Wadud.” Once the music started and she let out her improbably deep hardcore voice, the assorted K.C. punks and members of the other taqwa bands started shoving into each other, Ayyub pushing around punks and hardcores who could have been his biological children. After the song they cheered, to which the Churail girl replied with a simple mash'Allah. She told everyone that her next song was about something that had happened last week in Gaza.
Churails are the spirits of innocent women who have been killed by men. Neither alive or dead, their feet are turned backward, and have returned to take vengeance on men.
