Shelina Zahra Janmohamed
Shelina Zahra Janmohamed (born 13 April 1974) is a British writer. She is the author of Love in a Headscarf (2009), a memoir of growing up as a British Muslim woman.[1] Her new book titled Generation M: Young Muslims Changing the World[2][3] was published in August 2016. Generation M, as The Guardian puts it, "is the first detailed portrait" of the influential segment of the world’s "fastest growing religion", Islam.[4] She is also a blogger: her blog is called Spirit 21.[5]
Early life and education
[edit]Janmohamed was born on 13 April 1974.[6] She is of East-African and South-Asian origin.[7] Her parents emigrated from Tanzania in 1964.[8] She grew up in North London and was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls, Elstree, subsequently graduating from New College, Oxford.[1]
Career
[edit]Janmohamed is a regular contributor and writer for several news outlets and magazines, including the BBC,[9] ITV,[10] The Times, The Guardian,[11] The National,[12] The Muslim News,[13] Emel magazine,[14] The Independent[15] and The Telegraph.[16] focusing on Islam and current affairs. She has a particular interest in Muslim women and Islam in the West.
Her blog, Spirit21, has won several awards, including the Brass Crescent Award for Best Blog. Janmohamed lives in London and has appeared on numerous British television networks.[1]
She has travelled with the British Foreign and Commonwealth office to Darfur, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Qatar and Turkey under its programme to build links with British Muslims and encourage dialogue. She is a creator and organizer of social and cultural events for young British Muslims, as part of creating a new British Muslim culture and identity, and the host of the annual ‘Eid in the Square’ event which is held in Trafalgar Square. She is a trustee of the Windsor Fellowship which encourages minority ethnic students to excel in education and employment.[1]
She is serving as a Vice President of Ogilvy Noor, world's first Islamic Branding & marketing consultancy agency.[17][18]
Personal life
[edit]She is married and currently lives in London with her two children.[1]
Awards and honours
[edit]- Janmohamed was named by The Times and the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission as one of the UK's 100 most influential Muslim women, and most recently she was named as one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world.[1]
- In October 2013, she was included in the BBC's 100 Women.[19]
- In January 2014, Janmohamed was nominated for the Services to Media award at the British Muslim Awards.[20]
- In October 2014, she was included again in the BBC's 100 Women.[21]
Views
[edit]Janmohamed has stated the need for brands to improve their marketing aimed at Muslim consumers, urging them to conduct better research and to work harder at 'humanising' Muslims by treating them the same as they would any other demographic,[3] saying:
As marketers, we do that for all sorts of audiences. We humanise them and dig into where the brand has a role to play and somehow when it comes to Muslim audiences, all of the decades of professional experience and expertise somehow goes out the window.[3]
Janmohamed has criticised the current Home Secretary Sajid Javid for dismissing a request made by the Muslim Council of Britain for the Conservative party to carry out an independent inquiry into Islamophobia.[22] In an article for The National, she wrote:
When Muslims do talk about Islamophobia, they are accused of playing the victim, throwing the word around to draw attention to themselves. Yet the evidence is clear in the letter but also in all the statistics, from violence to inequality in education, health and employment. Many Muslims are victims.[22]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f Kemp, Charlotte (30 May 2009). "Sense and Serendipity". The National. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
- ^ Janmohamed, Shelina (2016). "Generation M: Young Muslims Changing the World". I.B.Tauris. p. 256. ISBN 1780769091.
- ^ a b c "Meet Shelina Janmohamed, Britain's leading voice on what Muslims want". ArabianBusiness.com. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
- ^ Sherwood, Harriet (3 September 2016). "Meet Generation M: the young, affluent Muslims changing the world". Guardian Online. The Guardian. Retrieved 28 April 2017.
- ^ Casciani, Dominic (29 November 2007). "The battle over mosque reform". BBC News Online. BBC News. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 14 November 2018. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Listening to a Diasporic British Muslim Woman Writer's Voice: An Interview with Shelina Janmohamed". tuckmagazine.com. 6 July 2016.
- ^ Barton, L (8 February 2009). "Hot dates and headscarves". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 January 2015.
- ^ "BBC Radio 3 - Arts & Ideas, Free Thinking: Shelina Janmohamed. Edward Ardizzone's Art. Jewish identity in fiction". BBC. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
- ^ "Revealing the generosity of the UK's Muslim community during Ramadan". ITV News. 16 May 2018. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
- ^ Janmohamed, Shelina Zahra (14 February 2009). "A Muslim woman's journey". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
- ^ "Topics". The National. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
- ^ "Inspiring Muslim successes". The Muslim News. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
- ^ "Rebuilding Islam's Brand | Shelina Janmohammed | Comments | June 2010 | emel - the muslim lifestyle magazine". www.emel.com. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
- ^ "8 questions journalists should have asked instead of drinking Boris' tea". indy100. 14 August 2018. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
- ^ "Shelina Janmohamed". The Telegraph. 25 February 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
- ^ "Meet our experts". ogilvynoor.com. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
- ^ "Shelina Zahra Janmohamed, Britain's leading voice on what Muslims want". The Siasat Daily. 9 January 2019. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
- ^ "100 Women: Who took part?". BBC. 22 November 2013.
- ^ "British Muslim Awards 2014 winners". Asian Image. 31 January 2014. Retrieved 1 November 2015.
- ^ "Who are the 100 Women 2014?". BBC. 26 October 2014.
- ^ a b "Denying the discrimination of British Muslims is its own twisted form of Islamophobia". The National. 7 June 2018. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
Further reading
[edit]- Reviews
- Sufian, Abu (2014). "Review of Shelina Zahra Janmohamed's Love in a Headscarf". Journal of Islamic Law and Culture. 15 (1). Retrieved 24 March 2015.
- Umar, Zeenat (September 2010). "Love in a Headscarf: Muslim Bridget Jones". Illume Magazine Online. Retrieved 10 December 2014.
- Alemany Oliver, Mathieu (2017). "Generation M: young Muslims changing the world". European Journal of Marketing. 51 (9/10): 1768–1770. doi:10.1108/EJM-03-2017-0232.
External links
[edit]| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
- 1974 births
- Living people
- 21st-century British memoirists
- 21st-century British women writers
- 21st-century British journalists
- 21st-century British women journalists
- 21st-century Muslims
- Alumni of New College, Oxford
- British bloggers
- British Muslims
- British women memoirists
- British women bloggers
- People educated at Haberdashers' Girls' School
- Writers from London
- Journalists from London
- British people of Tanzanian descent