You've said before that Muslims, generally, are not your biggest fans.

Right -- as you can see by the e-mails I read in the show. But I think a lot of them are hypocrites because they've never seen me. They'll write to me because they've heard about me or read about me, but they've never seen me perform. And it's stupid and it's hypocritical that they write to me. I mean, they should be writing to the people who did 9/11, to the people who blow up people all over the world -- those are the people they should be writing to. Not a comedian who is telling jokes, who is making people laugh. They've got it all wrong.

Why do you think people feel that you can't be a Muslim and make fun of yourself?

I think mainly because I'm a woman. I'm a woman and standing in front of an audience that is, most of the time, predominantly men. And, a lot of the times, predominantly drunk. And I think many Muslims feel that women shouldn't be exposed to that, they shouldn't be in an environment where there are men, there's alcohol, there's temptation. It's got nothing to do with religion, it's got to do with culture. A lot of predominantly Muslim cultures -- Arabic culture, Middle Eastern culture -- they don't like women to be in the public eye.

There have never been any Muslim women in positions of power. There was Benazir Bhutto, who was the prime minister of Pakistan, but that was it. I could never tell a man, look, she did this and she did that, why can't I do it? People question me and criticize me and I've got no role models to be able to say, well, you know what, they all did it before me. I have to justify what I'm doing. And you know, I'm not sleeping with the audience, I'm just telling jokes! It makes people laugh and think. And I think people need to see a Muslim woman. We've got no power and all people think we do is get beaten by our husbands and we've got terrible lives and we're all oppressed. And I don't think that will change unless we do something about it.

Do you think through your show you're changing perceptions about Muslims?

Maybe. Maybe they'll be able to laugh at something that they normally wouldn't be able to laugh at. And also now I'm beginning to do material that's more personal to me -- like about my travels, my parents, being a virgin. I want to do more of that than generally speaking for all Muslims -- I can't and I don't want to speak for all Muslims.

You say in your show, "I'm so happy to be here, especially because my dad let me out for the night." Did you spend a lot of time locked up in the house, growing up?

Yeah, my dad was very strict. The last thing he expected me to do was this. He wanted me to go to university -- which I did -- get married, have kids and be a good Muslim woman. And when I say "good Muslim woman" what I mean is, serve my husband and look after the home and the children. And I just knew I was never going to do that. And I thought, Where is this in Islam, that women are treated like that? And it made me angry, and a bit of that anger is in my stand-up.

"The Last Temptation of Shazia" is all about your travels and having to confront offers of sex, drugs and alcohol -- all the things you don't do. I think the most fascinating part of that is the sex.

Americans are obsessed with sex! America uses sex to sell cheese. I think everyone is sex-obsessed, but in England they don't talk about it as openly as they do here. I think normally when you go see a comedian, they're talking about their girlfriend, what they did with their girlfriend last night or how many people they've slept with. And the last thing people expect is for someone to come onstage and say they've never done it. They're thinking, is she making this up?

Well, to be 28 and a virgin is sort of unbelievable!

I remember when I started that material thinking, they don't know whether to laugh or not. I wanted to say, yes, this is true.

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