Thu, 16 February 2012, 8 pm | English

RELC Building

Darul Arqam (Muslim Converts Association)

Shelina Zahra Janmohamed

talk

"At the age of thirteen, I knew that I was destined to marry John Travolta. One day he would arrive on my North London doorstep, fall madly in love with me and ask me to marry him. Then he would convert to Islam and become a devoted Muslim.'

Shelina is keeping a very surprising secret under her headscarf – she wants to fall in love and find her faith. Torn between the Buxom Aunties, romantic comedies and mosque Imams, she decides to follow the arranged-marriage route to finding Mr Right, Muslim-style. Shelina's captivating journey begins as a search for the one, but along the way she also discovers herself and her faith. A memoir with a hilarious twist from one of Britain's leading female Muslim writers, "Love in a Headscarf" is an entertaining, fresh and unmissable insight into what it means to be a young British Muslim woman.

In this talk that is based on her book, “Love in a Headscarf”, Shelina talks about how sometimes being true to our religion means challenging tradition, and how we may be surprised at what Islam has to offer.

Join Shelina in this candid talk about love and religion.

Shelina Janmohamed is the author of "Love in a Headscarf", a humorous and irreverent memoir about growing up as a Muslim woman. She writes regularly for EMEL magazine, a leading glossy Muslim lifestyle magazine. She also writes for the Times Online, the National (based in the UAE) and has written for the Guardian and Comment is Free.

She has her own award-winning blog which is now four years old at spirit21.co.uk. She has travelled with the British Foreign and Commonwealth office to Darfur, Egypt, Saudia Arabia, Indonesia, Qatar and Turkey under its programme to build links with British Muslims and encourage dialogue. She is a creator and organizer of social and cultural events for young British Muslims, as part of creating a new British Muslim culture and identity, and the host of the annual ‘Eid in the Square' event which is held in Trafalgar Square. She is a trustee of the Windsor Fellowship which encourages minority ethnic students to excel in education and employment.

Shelina was named by The Times newspaper and the UK Equalities Commission as one of the UK's 100 most influential Muslim women, and most recently she was named as one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world. She is a graduate of New College, Oxford. She is married and currently lives in London.