Comédia muçulmana

A revista do New York Times traz uma reportagem sobre a comediante Shazia Mirza que está fazendo sucesso na Europa.

A moça nasceu no Paquistão, é muçulmana devota e faz piadas, no mínimo, ousadas...

But the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks changed everything. Initially, she ceased performing on the logic that this might not be the time for gags about Ramadan or, for that matter, anything funny a Muslim had to offer. Three weeks later, though, she took the stage in a Soho club called Amused Moose and, with a single joke, found the very, very thin line between acceptable comedy and abominable taste: ''My name is Shazia Mirza,'' she said. ''At least that's what it says on my pilot's license.''

She'll never forget the reaction. ''Everyone in the audience, all 200 of them, looked at each other, seeing if it was all right to laugh,'' she says. ''And after the pause, they really laughed.'' The line got a standing ovation. Mirza became famous overnight. European clubs wanted to book her with all speed; she was everywhere in the British media. While on tour, doing a layout for the German publication Stern, she was actually photographed posing with tiny model 747's, which she regards as howlingly funny. ''The Germans loved me -- and their sense of humor is still in development,'' she says. ''No other country would think to buy me airplanes!''