This Green and Pleasant

How would you react to a mosque being built in your village? Jess Thompson discovers the inspiration behind Ayisha Malik’s latest novel which is set in rural Dorset

- Jess Thompson

Meeting the author, Ayisha Malik, the one thing I’m determined not to talk about is her hijab. I worry this might be tricky, because one of my first questions regarding her latest novel is about the consequences faced by her main character when he decides to put his head above the cultural parapet in terms of declaring his faith. But I know that Malik is bored – so bored – of discussing the headscarves she’s worn for the last 13 years; as if they’re the only things that define her. However, the last thing I’m expecting when I arrive at the café and fruitlessly scan the room for her is that she’ll no longer be wearing one. So, straight into a discussion about hijabs then…

“For me it was a very personal thing to do with my faith,” she says, as I try not to feel envious of the glossy black curls that tumble about her face. “But over time it’s become more and more politicised, so wearing it made me feel like I was making more of a statement than I wanted. Also, as my public profile has grown, I’d begun to get lots of requests to write articles on things like France’s burkini ban. I now consciously stay away from those conversations; I don’t think they add anything new. My faith informs the themes I wish to explore but it doesn’t define me as a writer; and nor should it.”

This desire to widen her focus was evident in her first two novels: rom coms set in London where although the protagonist, Sofia Khan (billed as the Muslim Bridget Jones) doesn’t drink or have sex outside marriage, she is the opposite of downtrodden and oppressed (a familiar Muslim trope).