Sofia Khan is Not Obliged: A heartwarming romantic comedy

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Again, I hate to be negative, especially because I really enjoyed the previous book in this series, but I was just quite disappointed, and I am not sure I would rush to return to this series when the next book is published. Sofia Khan is a Muslim woman working for a publicity company. She was supposed to marry Iman but called it off because she didn’t want to live with his family. In particular, marrying Iman would mean living with a hole in the wall, a hole connecting what would be her home to his parents. But at the same time WHAT WAS HAPPENING?? ON MY GOD??????? I WAS YELLING AT CONNALL AND HIS BEHAVIOURS RUNNING AWAY AGAIN AND NOT TELLING SOFIA ABOUT HIS CHILD AND THE!! ENDING!!! DID THEY ACTUALLY GOT DIVORCED?? JESUS CHRIST I was yelling all the time to be honest because there's SO MUCH DRAMA and I was SO WORRIED ALL THE TIME??? I was worried about Sofia and Connall and his parents and her mother and her friends and the irish kid and EVERYTHING. Poor communication was the main villain here and it drove me insane. Just. Please. Talk with each other. Tell them stuff. Stop making me suffer.

Sofia Khan is Not Obliged aces the Bechdel test. I'm a feminist through and through and believe in supporting and uplifting women. My friendships in real life and online are all founded on mutual, unfailing support systems and because of this I love seeing female relationships portrayed positively in fiction. Most female friendships in fiction are either token friendships or are negatively portrayed but Sofia's friends are all shown as incredibly supportive women. I loved the fact that Sofia's BFFs Hannah, Suj and Fozia were well fleshed out characters with their own independent story arcs. They all had distinctly different personalities reflecting the fact that Muslim women are not a monolith. The book also highlights the strong familial relationships that are common in Desi families - Very, very heartwarming. Ayisha Malik is a Muslim and Sofia Khan is a Muslim. This book is about young Muslim women. As with Sofia Khan is not Obliged, The Other Half of Happiness gently challenges a few assumptions, it draws attention to a few generalisations but it is all done with a gentle touch. It is not educative or moralising, it's observational and authentic. And Kelly Bright's interview is so cleverly reported that despite the issues underlying the questions she asks, the focus remains the focus of the book - love and happiness. The Other Half of Happiness is a romantic comedy at heart (excuse the pun!). It's a book about realistic expectations, confronting truths and then finding happiness through coming to terms with what happiness means to you. The plot twist around Sofia's husband ALSO involved a lot of shitty communication and Not Using Your Words, and GAH. Just stop. I'm just reading that author's note again. "While Sofia Khan is Not Obliged was dubbed a rom-com, to me it was really the story of a struggle; the internal one, pitted against the external one". I'm shaking my head at the pretentiousness of it all. It's okay to write a fun book. It's important for Muslim women, WOC to get a fun book where good things happen to them -- for once. Sofia’s parents almost divorced once and don’t really seem to like each, frequently alluding to a missed opportunity to divorce. She remembers that time when they were struggling, when her mother almost left her father. Marriage doesn’t seem that attractive to her but her younger sister, Maria, can’t wait to get married.As well as hearing from Amy about her thoughts and observations, we will once again be opening the floor up to you, our club members, to share your own observations and remarks. To get you thinking and to help prepare any comments or questions you might want to share, we have prepared three starter questions: But what normal human being would ask another human being to live with a cohort of mother, father, brother and sister-in-law with two children, complete with a sister and brother-in-law and three children next door, and a hole-in-the-wall joining the two houses? (Just writing that sentence about so many people confused me; imagine living with them),” she writes.

I love how light/funny the book is especially coming from a hijabi. It shows people that they are more than their religion and they have similar problems as others who might not be Muslims. I honestly could relate to her on some things: For instance, a culture obsessed with women getting married as soon as possible (that’s my culture alright). She also talks about things such as not drinking, abstinence from premarital sex and all around being modest (again, my culture/religion) but not in a judgemental way, more as a way of life. I feel empty. Frustrated. Angry, yet completely in love with the book. God, I was a mess reading it. Emotions and facial expressions and all!

Consultant Neurologist

And Conall feels guilty because he left Claire and his son when he was younger, but does the same thing again - AND leaves Sofia behind this time too. He has absolutely zero growth, but for some reason Sofia forgives him? Though he never asked for forgiveness and didn't actually change anything about him? Sofia is always humblebragging about her big mouth and opinionated ways, and how much they get her into trouble. Except in this case, when she and all her friends are absolutely derelict in their duty to tell Hannah: The Really Popular Book Club is the reading group hosted by Cambridge University Libraries. Everyone is invited to join us and our special guests to discuss a really popular book, one that we all know and perhaps or perhaps not love. Khan says that some Afghan refugees have been left in a hotel for two to three months at a time, seemingly forgotten. "They're doing some English class, but the kids have had no schooling for all that time," Khan says. "And that's the least of their problems. People are asking for underwear and clothes." Sofia wears the hijab, despite the hassle this brings her from racists, colleagues and even her mother (who desperately wants her to take it off to catch a husband). She calls herself ' a walking, talking sign for religion'. It's clearly very important to her. Yet, her attitude towards it (or more precisely: her attitude towards other people's attitudes towards it) is confusingly variable. Different positions that Sofia holds on the hijab include:

It was easy to read, the characters were well fleshed out and there were so many laugh-out-loud moments! Plus, it made me think!! About life, love, the cultural aspects our parents and elders cling to, because it is their only form of familiarity, but also showing that it is possible for a family to move past that and becoming more open-minded, loving and accepting.

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everything about this novel challenges expectations...a sharp, funny but ultimately very normal portrait of life as a British Muslim' THE NATIONAL