Rushdiyah Narker is a writer from Cape Town whose work explores romance, identity, and the unspoken tensions within the Muslim community. Her fiction focuses on tender, character-driven narratives rooted in the everyday rhythms of Cape Town life.
Rushdiyah Narker grew up in Lansdowne, Cape Town, and started writing when she realised it was the one place where her emotions finally made sense. She began with poetry, but once she discovered short stories, her world, and her writing, opened up.
She graduated from UCT at 41 with a degree in English Literature and Anthropology, a combination that deepened her love for fiction while teaching her how research and storytelling can work together.
She has always been drawn to romance and slice-of-life stories, the quiet moments, the messy feelings, the characters trying to understand who they are. She’s just as fascinated by the silences and taboos within the Muslim community, and many of her characters wrestle with these tensions in their inner worlds and relationships.
These interests shaped her debut novel, Some Unspoken Thing, a young adult friends-to-lovers romance set in Cape Town.
She’s currently working on her second novel, a standalone sequel following Gadija as she learns herself, unpacks her hyper-fixations, navigates colourism in the Muslim community, and discovers what it really means to use her voice, all set in the early 2000s.
Maryam, a quiet 16-year-old from Cape Town, is pulled into the messy joy and fear of first love when Fuad begins to notice her. Navigating friendship, desire, and cultural expectations in the 1990s, she must decide whether to stay in the shadows or step into her own light.
Maryam has always been the quiet one in her friend group — happiest observing from the sidelines while her confident best friend, Tauhier, effortlessly takes centre stage. But when Fuad, the charismatic heartthrob everyone adores, begins to pay attention to her, Maryam is thrown into a mix of excitement, confusion, and fear she’s never felt before. Each interaction feels overwhelming, until Tauhier steps in to help her navigate these unfamiliar emotions.
Set in 1990s Cape Town, Some Unspoken Thing explores the tenderness and turmoil of first love against a backdrop of cultural expectations, community pressures, and personal insecurity. Maryam must decide whether she’s brave enough to follow her heart — even if it means stepping out of the shadows.
In the shadow of her vibrant best friend Tauhier, 16-year-old Maryam has always felt more comfortable observing than participating. Growing up in 1990s Cape Town, she has learned to keep her feelings neatly tucked away — safer in silence than in the uncertainty of being seen.
Everything changes when Fuad, the charming and effortlessly confident boy at the centre of their friend group, suddenly begins to notice her. His attention pulls Maryam into a whirlwind of curiosity, anxiety, and quiet hope. Each conversation, each glance, becomes an obstacle she can barely bring herself to step over. Tauhier, ever protective and warm, steps in to guide her through the confusing terrain of first love.
But Maryam’s journey isn’t just about falling for Fuad — it’s about navigating the expectations of her family, the cultural norms that shape her world, and the insecurities she’s spent years holding close. As she grapples with unfamiliar emotions and the tension between friendship and desire, she begins to question who she is and who she has the courage to become.
Set against the textured backdrop of 1990s Cape Town — its communities, its rhythms, its unspoken rules — Some Unspoken Thing is a tender coming-of-age romance about self-discovery, faith, longing, and the bravery it takes to step from the shadows into your own light.