Dutiful Daughter

Hardback

A memoir of good girls, obedient wives and doing the impossible

How does a girl from a strict Pakistani working-class family in Birmingham become Britain's first Muslim female stand-up comedian?

When Shazia Mirza was growing up - this was an impossibility. Asian women did not perform. They cooked, cleaned and were good silent wives. If they did well at school, they became doctors, dentists, or lawyers. If they did badly - they married one.

As a young girl, Shazia couldn't understand why she shouldn't do the things she was told not to do. Born an outsider, always looking in, she refused to accept things as they were. And though she had no role models, no one who looked like her doing what she wanted to do, she did it anyway. Even if that meant having to bear the consequences of family outrage and violent fury. Or when it meant taking on an industry that revered white men, or having to bunk off being a science teacher to make it to the gigs on time.

This is the surprising, sad and very funny story of how Shazia did what she wanted, against the rules and against the odds.