British Pakistanis take the spotlight
My Name Is... told the story of what happened when a girl leaves her Scottish mother to join her Pakistani father in Lahore and subsequently reverses the journey from him to her.
In Burq Off!, Nadia P Manzoor presented a blistering autobiographical one-woman show with 21 different characters from her life as a rebellious Pakistani Muslim in North London.
The film Catch Me Daddy was a grim, gritty tale of how Laila and her white boyfriend are hunted down by her brother and a posse of accomplices who track them to their caravan on the edge of the Yorkshire moors.
The theatrical surge continued with The Infidel - The Musical, in which a middle-aged British Muslim family man discovers he was born a Jew. More humour came with Immigrant Diaries, in which comedian Sajeela Kershi ("my parents arrived in the UK in the early hours of winter with all our possessions, three kids and 3,000 cigarettes stuffed in to a Scooby-Doo van") hosts guests who include British-born Pakistani rock guitarist Aziz Ibrahim.
Before the general election we had Multitudes, in which a liberal British Muslism politician, Kasj, is shocked to find his girlfriend Natalie has converted to Islam, provoking a racist outburst from her mother and confusion on the part of Kash’s daughter, Khadira, who is drawn into a radical protest.
Cross-cultural sex is a key feature of playwright Avaes Mohammad's current double-bill at the Park Theatre, Hurling Rubble at the Sun and Hurling Rubble at the Moon, which looks at both Muslim and White British extremism, drawing on some of his own experiences in Blackburn.
Now comes The Diary of a Hounslow Girl by British Pakistani writer and actress Ambreen Razia, told through the eyes of a 16-year-old girl growing up in a traditional Muslim family amidst London's temptations and influences.
And if you're interested in Pakistani-Americans, also coming up this month is Dirty Paki Lingerie, the stories of six Muslim females in post-9/11 US.
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