‘Representation is vital, so I write of Muslims in love’
Andaleeb Wajid, 43, writes romance as well as horror. She’s prolific too. She has written 28 novels in 12 years, many of them tales of young Muslims falling in love. “Representation is important. I’m a Muslim. I write a lot about young, Muslim women who are strong, financially independent, everything you expect a woman of today to be. And in a way I feel that also normalises this view of women within the Muslim community too,” Wajid says.
She very deliberately avoids the clichés of the Western romance novel. “Personally, I don’t know any billionaires who wear tuxedos and go to glittery parties. My heroes are all people like you and me. I don’t write about damsels in distress. My heroines can stand on their own feet. There’s no taming of the shrew. A shrew can be a shrew if she wants to be.”
In her first novel, Kite Strings (Pustak Mahal, 2009), Mehnaz, a young woman from an orthodox South Indian Muslim family, realises she won’t be allowed to make important decisions about her own life. The story follows how she breaks free of this, seeks out love and finds herself.
In Mirror, Mirror (Penguin Random House, 2021), a 17-yearold with body-image issues is on the brink of a makeover when she finds out her mother is pregnant, and a boy she once loved comes back into her life.
“Over time, my characters have become stronger, with more conviction in themselves,” Wajid says.
She does provide happilyever-afters. “I love the fact that when you’re reading a romance book, that’s guaranteed. I like my readers to just take their minds off things and get drawn into a world where things may go wrong, but in the end, everything kind of works out.”
In a familiar strain through these interviews, Wajid discusses the struggle of women writers trying to find time to write. “We are expected to do so much apart from our work — take care of the house, the kids and so much more by default. Choosing to write full-time is a privilege not everyone has. My two sons have grown up seeing me write. I have a very supportive family. I’m very lucky to be one of the privileged ones.”