Having just watched an episode of Citizen Khan I would like to write about how I felt about the programme and its stereotypical characters.

Citizen Khan is a Pakistani man who came to England a few decades ago. He has a wife and two daughters who live with him in Birmingham. His daughters appear to practice conservative Islam but really want to have party and mess with boys like other girls living in the West.

In the episode that I saw Mr khan and the chairman of the mosque committee, Dave, had a competition to see whose ideas for an event are better. Whoever managed to invite more people to the gathering would get to be the chairman of the committee. But while he is organising the event his niece shows up and becomes a nuisance to Mr Khan.

Many characters in this comedy have stereotypical traits, like Citizen khan himself. He has a beard and always wears brown clothes because of the idea that many Pakistani men wear this attire is a common stereotypical view. He is very tight with his money and he has a lot of business plans but never follows through on any of them.

He treats his eldest daughter, Shazia, unfairly as he wanted to have a son. He treats his second daughter, Aaliyah, like a son and she often gets away with things that Shazia doesn’t. His wife has no job and stays at home to do the housework which is a stereotypical view of Asian women.

Whilst I do sometimes find the stereotypes funny I can see how they can offend some people who more closely fit the demographic of the stereotyped characters. Occasionally, I find some of the stereotypes of Pakistani people offensive. Most Asian and Muslim people are happy to live in Britain and have adopted British values and mixed in with society. Repeating these stereotypes can cause some people to think otherwise.