Laughing All the Way to the Mosque
The Misadventures of a Muslim Woman
Paperback
Description
Being a practicing Muslim in the West is sometimes challenging, sometimes rewarding and sometimes downright absurd. How do you explain why Eid never falls on the same date each year; why it is that Halal butchers also sell teapots and alarm clocks; how do you make clear to the plumber that it's essential the toilet is installed within sitting-arm's reach of the tap?
Zarqa Nawaz has seen and done it all.
And it's not always easy to get things right with the community either: Zarqa tells of being asked to leave the DBW (Dead Body Washing) committee after making unsuitable remarks; of undertaking the momentous trip to Mecca with her husband, without the children, thinking (most incorrectly) that it will also be a nice time to have uninterrupted sex; of doing the unthinkable, and creating Little Mosque on the Prairie, a successful TV sitcom about that very (horrified, then proud) community.
You have to laugh.
Praise For Laughing All the Way to the Mosque: The Misadventures of a Muslim Woman…
She's sarcastic and irreverent but warm-hearted, and her writing has something of the great Nora Ephron's about it - she's witty and quick, but never takes herself too seriously—Independent
Nawaz tells it like it is in this hilarious, frank and enlightening memoir about growing up Muslim. The bit where, as a moody teenager, she decides to wear the hijab purely to 'out-Muslim' her mother is brilliant—Glamour
Muslim readers will find in Nawaz a passionate advocate for women's rights within the community and a fierce defender of her faith as one of peace. The non-Muslim reader will find her an accessible and entertaining guide to the practicalities of her religion—Telegraph
Virago, 9780349005935, 240pp.
Publication Date: May 17, 2016