Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged by Ayisha Malik

3.5 Stars

Sofia Khan is first and foremost a devout Muslim, well not quite so devout she wears a Niqab bur that step doesn't feel far away for her to be honest.  She faithfully follows the prayer schedule each day and avoids everything Haram - apart from the odd cigarette.  Sofia Khan is also British and is a fairly well adjusted mid 20-something with a career, friends and family.  Basically she is a 21st Century woman who just happens to be religious and have brown skin.

The book follows her from calling off her marriage, battling through her book PR job (that she has a love/hate relationship with) and just trying to cope with everything that life throws at her - including strangers calling her a terorist on the tube.  Whilst not laugh out loud funny, it is wryly humorous and gives a welcome account of modern life; whether or not you are a Muslim.  It was just unfortunate that the denoument of the novel was foreshadowed so heavily and came as no real surprise.  To be honest, I spent the last 20% of the book just wanting to get to the end as I knew exactly where it was going for Sofia and getting there was becoming boring.

Whilst the writing style is enjoyable with our eponymous narrator having an engaging voice and a wry sense of humour that translates well on the page.  My real issue with this book was repetition throughout - of dialogue, of situations - at first I did think it was to overstress a point for humorous purposes but if it is, it really misses the mark. The publisher's blurb promises you the "Muslim Bridget Jones" and this is definitely overselling the presented material, if not the premise.

I also had "issues" with Sofia refering to herself as an Hijabi and to devout Muslim men as "Beardies".  The reason that this became a problem for me was that if I were to use such terms I would be pilloried and after talking about the book with a mixture of my Muslim colleagues they also felt that the terms were insensitive and inappropriate and were surprised that the book was written by a Hijab wearing British Muslim woman.  Maybe it is a North/South divide thing but certainly the people I spoke to about found these terms offensive.

On the whole, it is a solid enough book that just doesn't quite deliver.