Picture by Jacek.NL.

A Muslim blogger is creating waves for a book that tells her story of finding love.

Shelina Zahra Janmohamed’s ‘memoir of growing up as a Muslim woman’ tells of her quest to find the right man through the traditional route of arranged marriage.

With an extract published in The Daily Mail and an interview in The Guardian, Janmohamed has seen her book Love in a Headscarf shoot to a five star rating on Amazon, suggesting it has hit a chord with readers.

“I was really overwhelmed by how connected people felt to the story and how it had humanised what it meant to be a Muslim woman,” Janmohamed said. “That for me was really important.”

As a blogger writing about Muslim issues, Janmohamed has long sought to give  women within the Muslim community a voice.

“One of the reasons I wrote the book was to reach out to people who would never ordinarily read a book called, ‘What is Islam?’, or maybe never even had the opportunity to meet someone who is Muslim.”

“It becomes very challenging when the media creates very polarized characters to create narratives outside that.

“This is one of the challenges we’re facing as a Muslim community – if you’ve never met a Muslim and all you have is The Sun, The Daily Mail and Fox News then of course you’re not going to know what it’s like to be a Muslim.

“There are terrible things that happen to women who are Muslim but when you assign someone by only one story it becomes very difficult to break out of that mould.”

Janmohamed said the book was written to provide a narrative about a Muslim woman’s search for love from a ‘universal’ perspective.

“What I wanted to do was provide another portrayal of Muslim women so we can start to have a discussion about what it means to be a Muslim woman.”

“I wanted to write something that would have a universal appeal and have the kind of human tale that anyone can reach out to, and say ‘yeah that’s a little bit like my life’.”

“The closest story to that for everybody is the story of love. Everyone gets so intrigued when the topic of ‘How did you meet your partner?’ comes up.”

“The more I thought about that topic, the more I thought whatever culture you’re from the subject of love and what is love, and how do you find it and when you’ve got it what does it mean -  some critical questions come up with every generation as time changes.”

For Janmohamed, the universal concept of love is romantic rather than patriarchal.

But the pursuit of romance is set within the narrative of how a Muslim family approaches marriage.

In extracts published in The Mail Online, Janmohamed tells of the moment she is first formally introduced to a potential suitor at the age of 19.

In the encounter the men and women of the families take different sides of the room, ‘as is the norm’ in a Muslim setting according to Janmohamed.

When Janmohamed is given the chance to talk to her suitor – a 23-year-old accountant from a ‘good family’ – the door has to remain open, as ‘propriety dictates’.

But she remains adamant that this is how relationships should begin.

“I don’t find it strange that I might meet my future life partner this way,” she says.

“Is this any different to chatting to someone in a bar, club or restaurant?”

“At 19, all I want is to fall in love,” she adds.

Mail Online readers were won over, according to the comments thread.

“Very funny – I laughed out loud during a number of passages!” said Alison from Sheffield. “It just goes to show that we really are all sisters under the skin!!”

“That was a brilliant story, it goes to show that arranged marriages do not have to be painful,” said Sue from Surrey.

“It was really exciting that the Mail loved the book and it was even more overwhelming that their readers connected with the book,” Janmohamed told Muez i Diin Street blog.

“It’s that humanisation that we need to inject into the discussion. Muslims have the same kinds of aspirations as anyone else.”

“That kind of cross-cultural communication where you can look at all cultures and see what is good and what isn’t, and still love human beings – it just isn’t out there right now.”

But how does Janmohamed respond to the question of whether writing chick lit about her personal experiences of meeting men is acceptable in an Islamic context?

“What I find objectionable is when people talk about Muslim women and don’t let them talk for themselves. That’s what we need to address.

“Let Muslim women have their voices and decide for themselves what they want to do.

“Many Muslim women find their faith very important to  them and are remarkably well balanced. Where there are cases where women are not comfortable with their faith that’s usually because there’s a pressure on them to conform in particular way.”

“As a Muslim you can’t force anyone to do anything.  There are standards of tolerance we have to respect, and one of them is giving people their own opinion and their own voice.”

As a Muslim writer hoping to appeal to non-Muslim readers, it’s hardly surprising that Janmohamed has some advice for how individuals can better learn to live in a multicultural society.

“The best way to learn about anything when it comes to people is to talk to someone from that background.

“As soon as you make a personal connection to someone your whole attitude to them will change.  It’s about hearing the view from that person rather than making assumptions.

“That personal connection that can turn into understanding and dialogue, and create a way of living together.

“That was one of the reasons I wrote the book was to write people who might never meet a Muslim to see the world through our eyes and see it’s not that different.”