Comedian Shazia Mirza uses edgy humour to defend Islam

Comedian Shazia Mirza is adamant: she never wanted to create her stand-up show The Kardashians Made Me Do It. "It was something I felt I had to do," she says.

Such reluctance seems strange for a comedienne who performed every night for a month at Edinburgh’s Fringe, and who is about to embark on a fresh run in London with newly added material.

But Mirza, 38, says she felt compelled to write the provocative material, in which she takes on jihadi brides, ISIL and its leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi – not least because they purport to be representing her faith.

“I felt I had to say: ‘This is nothing to do with Islam, the religion that I and my friends practise every day’,” she says.

She was motivated to take action by the story of three schoolgirls from Bethnal Green in East London, who fled their homes to join ISIL in Syria this year.

As a Muslim public figure in her native Britain, Mirza was bombarded with calls to comment from TV and radio stations. “Like they consulted me before they went,” she says. “I thought: ‘Why are you asking me? I am as baffled as you are’.”

But one thing she felt compelled to demonstrate was “this is not Islam. I felt strongly that I should say that, and if I was to go on stage and do a show about this as a comedienne, I should give the audience some proof – not just give them the truth – in an intelligent, funny way”.

The result was The Kardashians Made Me Do It, a stand-up show in which she tackles the teenagers' reasons for fleeing – "they think they've gone on a Club 18-30 holiday".

Mirza’s comedy clearly has serious undertones, most notably, perhaps, during a bold finale in which she quotes the hadith, the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, to demonstrate all that is wrong with ISIL.

Her Edinburgh show won lavish praise, described as “brave and urgent”, “vital” and “rammed with provocation”. Is she worried about a backlash?

Mirza, a former schoolteacher who began writing and performing comedy in 2000, says she is backed by religious scholars and holy texts and felt obliged to defend her faith.

“If we keep ramming Islam down people’s throats, they are not going to listen,” she says. “I can make people laugh. It can be entertaining and lighthearted – but I can also tell them the truth.”

She has previously received death threats, however, particularly after the September 11 attacks, when her one-liner “my name is Shazia Mirza – at least, that’s what it says on my pilot’s licence” would elicit gasps from the audience.

But Birmingham-born Mirza, who has performed in Dubai and Oman, pulls no punches and does not shy away from pushing boundaries.

Her show, which has been extended to nearly two hours, has already been mired in controversy before it even begins its run at Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn in North London today.

She wanted to call it The Road To Al Baghdadi but was banned from doing so by theatre managers. She renamed it based on a comment made by the sister of one of the runaway teenagers about how she was "into normal teenager things and watched Keeping Up with the Kardashians".

Mirza was told by theatre staff that she could not use the name she wanted because “it will end up in the news cycle and on Twitter, ISIL will see it and we could get into serious trouble”. “I was annoyed and thought it was crazy,” she says.

“ISIL is about fear and you are now buying into that, so they are winning. But that [decision] has backfired because I have done a whole routine about it in my show now – so it will end up in the news cycle anyway.

“This is a lesson not to censor art of any kind, especially at this time.”

• Shazia Mirza: The Kardashians Made Me Do It runs from today­ until October 3 at Tricycle Theatre, ­London. For more information, visit www.tricycle.co.uk

artslife@thenational.ae