Her descriptions of Muslim women often contrast stereotypical Western views. As she describes her romance with Omar, Wilson also makes note of her position as a woman in this unfamiliar country. They fall in love and become engaged soon afterward. Omar is Egyptian, a native of Cairo, and Wilson is amazed at his knowledge not only of Egyptian and Middle Eastern literature, but also of Shakespeare and the Western canon. Soon after she arrives, she meets Omar, a fellow instructor at the institute where she is teaching.

The amenities and luxuries that Wilson had experienced growing up in America are limited or entirely unavailable. The people of Cairo are poor and the city is polluted and dirty. She is immediately struck by the stark cultural differences between life in America and life in Egypt. Wilson is 25 years old when she accepts a teaching position in Cairo in 2003. She explains that “religion was taboo in my family, and Islam was taboo in my society-these pressures are not easily shaken off, and I sometimes felt as guilty as if I had committed a crime.” Still, she gives in to her religious leanings and decides to apply for a teaching job in Cairo, where she can continue to practice her faith and study Islamic and Middle Eastern culture. She writes about the bias she experienced growing up, both her parents' bias against religion and America's cultural bias against Islam that she experienced after September 11, 2001. Because of her upbringing in a staunchly atheist household, she keeps her conversion quiet from her friends and family. Her experience in her first Islamic Studies course sparks her fascination with the Muslim faith, but it isn't until later that an illness prompts her conversion to Islam. Wilson begins her memoir in America, where she is studying Islamic and Quranic Studies at Boston University. The Butterfly Mosque was named a Seattle Times Best Book of 2010, and Wilson's works have achieved her a Hugo Award, a World Fantasy Award, and the Dwayne McDuffie Award for Diversity, among others. Wilson also published Alif the Unseen, a fantasy novel that explores Middle Eastern folklore and current events.

Marvel, a popular comic staring Kamala Khan, a Muslim teenager from New Jersey, which was acclaimed because it is one of few comics to feature a Muslim girl as a protagonist. Wilson's memoir offers insight into the themes and characters that appear in her other works, which focus on fairly representing Muslim, Muslim-American, and Middle Eastern characters for Western audiences. Wilson tells the story of her first experiences with Islam at Boston University, and how they lead to her eventual move to Cairo and romance with a Muslim man, her now husband Omar. Willow Wilson writes on her experiences crossing cultures and embracing Islam as an American girl raised in an atheist home in Denver, Colorado. In the memoir The Butterfly Mosque, published by Grove Atlantic in 2010, author G.

The butterfly mosque