Q&A with Zarqa Nawaz
ZARQA NAWAZ has always straddled two cultures. She's just as likely to be agonizing over which sparkly earrings will "pimp out" her hijab as to be flirting with the Walmart meat manager in a futile attempt to secure halal chicken the day before Eid.
The television show Little Mosque on the Prairie brought Zarqa's own laugh-out-loud take on her everyday culture clash to viewers around the world. And now, in Laughing All the Way to the Mosque, she tells the sometimes absurd, sometimes challenging, always funny stories of being Zarqa in a western society. From explaining to the plumber why the toilet must be within sitting arm's reach of the water tap (hint: it involves a watering can and a Muslim obsession with cleanliness "down there") to urging the electrician to place an eye-height electrical socket for her father-in-law's epilepsy-inducing light-up picture of the Kaaba, Zarqa paints a hilarious portrait of growing up in a household where, according to her father, the Quran says it's okay to eat at McDonald's -- but only if you order the McFish.
After reading Laughing All the Way to the Mosque, we had a few questions for Zarqa about the book and herself. And she was happy to give us some answers.
McNally Robinson: We know a lot of Little Mosque on the Prairie was based on your life and the people in it (in fact, reading Laughing All the Way to the Mosque often felt like watching an episode of Little Mosque), so clearly you’re comfortable including your personal experiences in your work. But Laughing is not just based on your life -- it’s about your life. Did you find it difficult to write about yourself so closely? To “reveal yourself” in that way?
Zarqa: I don’t think I understood what it really meant to write a memoir until I started. Halfway through writing the book, I looked at my husband and said ‘I don’t know if I want people to know this much about me.’ Up to this point, I’ve avoided all social media, no Facebook, no Twitter, very minimal website. I’m breaking down slowly and I’ve had to adopt (Twitter) because I’m causing other people problems when they want to reach me. Comedy can sometimes be a vehicle to hide behind, but very personal stories were coming through in the book and it started making me nervous. It had not been my intention to write a memoir at the beginning. I was going to write a series of intellectual essays about subjects important to me. But I had a great editor who felt that these subjects were imbedded in my life and drew them out of me through story. And all of a sudden I’m writing a memoir. It was a very freaky experience.
McNally Robinson: Journalist. Screenwriter. Now an author. Any plans on writing more books, maybe a series of novels? Could Laughing All the Way to the Mosque be the start of a literary career for you?
Zarqa: That’s a very good question. I think story is at the heart of my writing. I can be happy as long as I’m writing story. I had to turn the memoir into chapters that read like episodes from a TV show to get through it. I vacillate between putting all my energies into another TV show or start writing fiction. Both are essentially the same thing but in very different mediums. I try and follow the path to least resistance. TV is a tough medium to crack because there are so many hoops to go through in terms of process. Writing at home has been great because I’m with my family and not flying around every weekend. But I miss the collaborative environment writing that TV affords you. Sometimes when I was writing the book, I wish I had nine other comedy writers I could lean on to polish a joke but they weren’t there. So the easiest answer to the question is: I don’t know.
McNally Robinson: Okay, we have to ask you some of the usual author-interview questions: Favourite book of all time? Favourite author? Any famous writers or comedians (or anyone at all) who you can name as an influence on your work?
Zarqa: This is so hard. I want to be able to say War and Peace is so awesome but I didn’t read it, instead I read Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella. And anything by Jennifer Weiner. I try and read more political books to expand my horizons. I’m currently reading Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an by Denise A. Spellberg, which is fascinating. I love Nora Ephron and how she writes stories about her life. I wish I could be her. Huge fan of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.
