Mrs Islam

 Mrs Islam is an elderly, traditional, and somewhat authoritarian figure in the Bangladeshi community of Tower Hamlets in the novel Brick Lane by Monica Ali. She appears to have been secretly scamming people with her husband back in Bangladesh. In London, she often lends people from the community money and forces them to overpay her, threatening that her sons will beat them up if they do not. Mrs Islam is educated and comes from a respectable family and her husband worked in import-export (p. 66). 

Mrs. Islam represents the traditional values and patriarchal norms widespread in the Bangladeshi community. She upholds traditional gender roles, ex...