IHPME Alumni’s Award-Winning Short Story Bridges Health Equity and Storytelling

When Imaan Umar completed her PhD in Health Systems Research, her thesis work was centred around improving healthcare access, particularly to HPV vaccines for post-secondary students in Ontario. Now, she is expanding her focus on health equity through her storytelling.

By: Marielle Boutin

Umar recently won second place in the Toronto Star’s annual Short Story Contest, one of the longest-running competitions for short story writing in North America, supported by the Toronto Public Library and Humber College’s School for Writers. Her story, First Ouroboros, was recognized among submissions for its exploration of cultural expectations and reproductive choice, telling the story of a woman preparing for tubal ligation and how her decision affects her relationships with her fiancé and her ammi (mom).

Written from a South Asian diaspora perspective, the narrative brings into focus the complex way identity and history can shape choice.

“I really wanted to write a story about choice, and how certain threads in our webs of choice impact each other,” says Umar. “On the subject of choosing whether to have or not have children, I wanted to look further into the thread of ancestral trauma […] I hope this piece resonates with others whose communities have been impacted by colonization, displacement, or genocide.”

The story is a reflection of themes that are deeply aligned with Umar’s academic focus, notably reproductive justice, bodily autonomy, and health equity.

“For choices about bodily autonomy and reproductive justice, I wanted to examine how these choices can be weaved with threads of intergenerational survivorship, gender, and duty.”

While creative writing has long been a part of her life, Umar describes her story as a turning point.

“Creative writing has always been a part of my life, but more so as a practice,” she says. “This short story was actually the first time I purposefully created a fictional character and wrote for an audience.”

Writing the story also allowed her to occupy a unique space between academic thought and creative expression, giving her work of fiction the power to sit with themes that she has previously viewed from a policy and practice perspective.

“By committing to reading a story, you are forced to be an observer in the character’s journey, and that can bridge a lot of empathy and understanding for many under-examined topics.”

First Ouroboros is a testament to Umar’s ability to cultivate empathy in areas like reproductive justice and is a powerful example of how lived experience, cultural context, and systemic inequities can shape health outcomes. According to Umar, works of fiction such as this expand the reach of academic work, opening space for deeper reflection.