Sofia Khan is Not Obliged

Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged by Ayisha Malik
Reviewed by Kathy Livingstone for Bibliobelles (Reading Group of Stone Rangers WI)

What an interesting character is young (or perhaps not so young according to parents who want to see her married and settled) Sofia Khan. Adhering strongly to her interpretation of the faith she’s been brought up in, yet living an otherwise modern British life, her life is a living dichotomy which beautifully illustrates changes wrought by time and cultures intermingling.

I enjoyed following Sofia through her year of dating and her first foray into writing a book. Riddled as it is with a variety of humorous moments, we are also offered moments of deep reflection and sadness. There were times when it felt disjointed, but I felt that suited very well the theme of a young Muslim woman finding her way through her life within her traditional Pakistani family in multicultural Britain.

It was admittedly a bit predictable in its girl-gets-boy-with-a-modern-twist fairy tale ending but nonetheless enjoyable. I also felt it confirmed many of the difficulties that young Muslims (female and male) have to face and come to terms with to become part of a country with a very different cultural background, however welcoming and inclusive it might be.

On the back of reading SKINO, I went on to read The Girls of Riyadh and then dipped in to Reading Lolita in Tehran. This was like a journey delving deeper into the dilemma of women and their relationship with Islam and authority. An interesting, informative and thought-provoking journey, starting with the light, easy read (Sofia Khan), less light-hearted Girls of Riyadh to the more weighty Reading Lolita. All praiseworthy in their own right in the way that each offers up insights into the life of women in Islamic cultures.

Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged by Ayisha Malik
Reviewed by Emma Hayward for Bibliobelles (Reading Group of Stone Rangers WI)

Prior to reading SKINO, I had heard it described as “a Muslim Bridget Jones”; other than the obvious lack of alcohol involved, this is an accurate description in my view. Although I was not looking for comparisons between the two books, they have a similar “feel”, both involving unmarried women of marriageable age and the stressed involved in deciding how, why and whether or not to change that situation. The waters are muddied, and stresses amplified, by the well-meaning actions and comments of friends and family, together with the uncertainties of the main protagonist of the title, Sophia.
However, the twist here is that this is the tale is of a second-generation immigrant who also has religious and cultural clashes to add to the mix of worries. Should Sophia compromise her religious principles, forego the scarf she loves as a symbol of her beliefs, to increase her chances of winning a husband? Or in keeping her scarf is she limiting herself to Muslim men with too-traditional views, (at odds with her view of herself as more enlightened than her parents and ex-fiancé), who expect her to live with their parents?
On top of all this, her employers suddenly ask her to write a book despite her having no previous experience! So, we get swept up in Sofia’s attempts at Muslim dating “for book research” and soul searching as she procrastinates over a book she is not sure she wants to write, but cannot get out of, against the unhelpful background of family weddings, dramas and illnesses. Will her friends and neighbours provide the constancy she needs to help her find her own path to a future that will satisfy her seemingly disparate needs of companionship, religion, family and employment, without compromising any of them?
Sofia Khan may not be obliged, and neither are you to read this book, but I enjoyed it and felt I knew the characters by the end. The book gave a gentle insight into the tensions within first- and second-generation immigrant families in a familiar, non-political, not caricatured way. I cared what happened to them and what might happen to them in future episodes.Without spoiling anything for potential readers, I did find I half-guessed the ending which was a little predictable butsatisfying in the sense of thinking, “Good, that’s what I wanted for her!”

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