The experiences of marriage by three generations of Muslim women is explored in a new play based on interviews carried out in Bradford.

Called Cartographies of Love, the play is by writer and social commentator Irna Qureshi, who talked to South Asian grandmothers, mothers and daughters about their expectations and experiences of love and marriage, subjects rarely discussed by Muslim women.

Described as an “epic journey through the lives of four Muslim women”, the play will have a reading at the University of Bradford on Thursday, followed by an audience discussion on women’s attitudes to romance, love and marriage.

The audience is invited to step into the shoes of four women raised in India, Pakistan and Britain, and gain an understanding of the backgrounds and cultural influences shaping their expectations of marriage.

Miss Qureshi, who grew up on the Canterbury estate in Bradford and now lives in Keighley, said: “As much as the South Asian community is famed for its big weddings, the irony is that I grew up rarely having a conversation about love. In fact, most of my ideas of love came from watching Indian films!

“I suppose that’s why I set out to hear the stories of women of my own generation, and of my mother’s age as well as those much younger than me. I didn’t just want to know what marriage had offered them, I also wanted to know about their expectations of love, and if these had been met.

“Listening to these stories – some happy, some tragic, some funny, but all of them emotional – was remarkably therapeutic, particularly since I went down the arranged marriage route, with this idea that love for Pakistani women like me would appear after marriage.”

The reading, by professional actors, is supported by Bradford’s Theatre in the Mill, which supports new writing and new ways of making live performance.

Artistic director Iain Bloomfield said: “We’re delighted to introduce Irna’s work with South Asian communities and explore the experiences of arranged marriage from the woman’s perspective.

“Irna’s work is fresh and entertaining, sharing a topic in a way that allows anyone from any cultural position to relate to.”

The play reading is at the John Stanley Bell Lecture Theatre, the university’s Richmond Building, on Thursday at 7.30pm. For more information visit brad.ac.uk. To book tickets call (01274) 233200.