Growing up Muslim in Canada had its challenges for Zarqa Nawaz, starting with school lunch. Her mother insisted on sending Nawaz off with home-cooked chicken that smelled of cumin, when all she wanted was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, like all the other kids. Years later, Nawaz has turned a lifetime of culture clashes into a career as a writer and filmmaker. In her work, she uses humor to humanize a religion she loves, but others fear.
Nawaz is probably best known for creating the CBC sitcom Little Mosque on the Prairie, about Muslims living in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Now she also has written a memoir called Laughing All The Way to the Mosque. She tells NPR’s Lynn Neary that everything was fodder for her memoir — even her son’s circumcision.
“My son, who’s 17, he was so excited when the book came out. He goes, ‘Oh, what part of it am I in?’ And then it turned out it was the circumcision part. You know, his friends in high school read it and they teased him mercilessly. You don’t anticipate those things when you write!”
Find their full conversation here.
– Petra
A great interview that discusses religion, comedy and family life. -Emily
