About the Author

Irna Qureshi is an anthropologist, writer and oral historian specialising in British Asian arts, culture and migration. She has collaborated on several exhibitions and books on this theme, including Coming of Age: 21 Years of Mela in the UK, The Grand Trunk Road: From Delhi to the Khyber Pass and Home from Home: British Pakistanis in Mirpur. She is also curator of Bollywood Icons: 100 Years of Indian Cinema at the National Media Museum in Bradford.

Irna has written about the public perception of Muslim actresses working in the Pakistani film industry. She also writes regularly for Culture Vulture and The Guardian’s Northerner Blog and can be reached on Twitter. Irna’s latest work, Cartographies of Love, is a live performance based on intimate conversations with three generations of Muslim women in and around Bradford.

Irna blogs about being British, Pakistani, Muslim and female in Bradford. Her personal stories are set against the backdrop of classic Indian films which she discovered as a teenager. The latest episodes, starting with The Wedding Day, chart the progress of Irna’s traditional marriage in Pakistan during the 1990s. New episodes are posted at the beginning of every month. Do subscribe by leaving your email address in the box (top right of blog) if you’d like to be notified every time a new instalment is posted.