Ambreen Razia is the 23-year-old British writer and actress of “The Diary of a Hounslow Girl” which is about a young, Muslim woman who may look “traditional” to those outside the faith, but none-the-less knows how to rock hoop earrings and live a modern lifestyle. The playwright sees a “Hounslow girl” as “girls who you might see in shisha (hookah) bars in a big group. They’re urban, and they’re fashionable. The majority wear hijabs.”
Razia is aiming to break stereotypes. “Straight away, when you see a Muslim girl on a poster, you think — does this have a political agenda attached to it? Could this be about the girls who went off to Syria? And actually, [my play] is a coming-of-age story…. I think that whether you come from a strict Jewish or Catholic background, it doesn’t matter. It’s just showing that young girls who come from traditional backgrounds have parameters around them that can make coming of age more difficult.”
“The Diary of a Hounslow Girl” is touring theatres in Great Britain, and will soon be adapted into a YA Novel.
