RISING BEYOND THE CEILING GLOBAL INSPIRATIONS U.K
Inviting Nominations
Inspiring Muslim Women of India in Global Diaspora Based in United Kingdom and Europe
Rising Beyond The Ceiling is a global initiative to shine a spotlight on achievements and contributions of Muslim Women in and of India. This RBTC 100 Women Global inspirations Compendium seeks to recognize Muslim women from India who have made their mark across the globe in many countries around the world. All these women have done their initial studies in India but later moved to other countries and received accolades and successes in many fields.
While they may have nationalities of other countries today and live in countries and cities across the globe, they are a source of pride to India and their Alma Mater institutions in India. This global compendium is also to serve as inspiration and roles models for the next generation of Indian women who aspire to make careers globally.
Nominations are invited for the RBTC 100 Global Inspirations 2024 LIST. Please send a brief 250 word profile with links of inspiring Indian Muslim diaspora women making a contribution is any of the 14 categories below to RisingBeyondTheCeiling@gmail.com
Meanwhile check out our inspiring nominees in the list below of nominees based in cities of the United Kingdom & Ireland !
Nominations of Inspiring Muslim Women from India in the United Kingdom & Ireland
Leadership in Governance /Government
RBTC Global Nominee. ANAM SHAHAB, Head of Policy and Analysis HM Treasury. Senior Economist and Policy Advisor, United Kingdom Civil Services. London UK. Alumna: Lady Shriram College, Delhi University, Delhi, India. Hometown: Lucknow, India. Click side arrow for profile details.
In 2016 she was on secondment to IMF Fiscal Affairs Department to represent the UK Government’s strategy on public sector wage and workforce policy. Anam led a week-long international summit as a panel member to influence public sector wage bill policies in African countries.
Ms. Shahab has also worked as Economist at the Cambridge Economic Policy Associates (CEPA) London, Economist where she led on economic analysis of regulation policies in the energy, water and transport sector, e.g. led the productivity analysis of Network Rail and UK airports and assessment of the impact of price controls in NI electricity market.
Besides her profession work as an Economist, Anam is also a writer/poet. Her Collection of poems titled “soulless phantoms” was published by Penguin India in 2013. She has also been the Founder and Chief Editor of ‘the Cambridge Economist’ magazine . She founded and edited the first ever student run and student written magazine by the Economics and undergrads at Cambridge University
Anam has an MPhil in Economics, University of Cambridge, UK. She received the Duke of Edinburgh Scholarship from my college; She has also completed a Course in International Marketing at Harvard University, USA. Anam received her Post Graduate Diploma in Economics, University of Cambridge, UK (Distinction) . She was also awarded the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Bursary to outstanding students from overseas. Anam completed her BA (Honors) Economics, Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University, India (First class and in the top 1 % in Delhi University).
Links/References
RBTC Global UK Nominee. REHANA AMEER. Politician, Entrepreneur, London. Home Town: Tamil Nadu, India. Click side arrow for profile details.
Rehana is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is an honorary member of CEO Clubs Network UAE. She is also a Trustee of Trust for London. Rehana is on the Significant Business Committee of the East London NHS Foundation Trust where she provides strategic advice and guidance on the Trust’s investments and other commercial activities. She is an International Advisor of the United Economic Forum and a few other chambers of commerce in the UK and abroad where she mentors and provides strategic advice to entrepreneurs and professionals. Her key interest areas are entrepreneurship, women empowerment, education, technology, health, and international trade. Her interest also includes promoting the City of London in overseas markets with a focus in India and she actively engages in promoting trade between the UK and India.Rehana studied Public Policy from Oxford University. She also holds an MBA in International Business from the UK and several IT and Management certifications to her credit such as PRINCE2, SAP, MSP, ITIlLV3, Cloud Computing, Change Management, TOGAF, Digital Marketing and many more.
Rehana has over 25 years of experience in leading, managing and successfully delivering multi-million-pound multi-country Business and IT Transformation Programmes for clients worldwide in over 50 countries. Before embarking on her entrepreneurial journey, she has worked for companies such as Siemens, Capgemini, Sony and many others where she has held senior leadership positions. Rehana is a serial entrepreneur in – IT, Management & International Business Consulting, Education, Recruitment and Healthcare ventures.
References:
- https://www.rehanaameer.com/
RBTC Global UK Nominee. SHEHLA HASAN. Director & Head, UK Confederation of India Industry, London. Alumna Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University, India. Hometown: Delhi. Click side arrow for profile details.
In August 2021, Ms. Hasan was named as one of the most successful women of India origin in the UK by Purple Halo club. In May 2019 she was named one of the 100 most influential women in the UK-India relationship. In March 2018, she was included in the list of 11 inspirational women in the UK India business corridor by the CII. She founded the CBI’s India Advisory Board, comprising 25 chiefs of UK companies in India and the first ever UK India Women’s Leadership Network. She was a member of the CII’s MNC and Ease of Doing Business committees. She was part of the India Advisory Group of the Newcastle University Business School, and is a Committee Member of British Business Group, Delhi.
References/Sources
- 100-Most-Influential-in-UK-India-relations-3rd-Edition-2019.pdf (indiaincgroup.com) (see page 28 for profile)
- Listed as one of the 11 most influential women in the UK India corridor: You Can’t Be What You Can’t See - Asian News from UK (asianlite.com)
- CBI re-open New Delhi office | News | Fresh Business Thinking
- Shehla Hasan - Eye on England: Shehla Hasan and big business, Chila Burman's 'do you see words in rainbows?' - Telegraph India
- Manchester's big Asian signing - EasternEye
- People on the move: The 37 hires and promotions across the North West you should not miss - Business Live (business-live.co.uk)
Strides in Science
RBTC Global Nominee. NAZIA NASIR, Structural Biologist. Researcher at University of Leeds, Leeds, UK. Home Town: Aligarh, India. Alumna: Aligarh Muslim University, India. Click side arrow for profile details.
Nazia's Postdoctoral Research is backed by Humboldt Fellowship at The Julius Maximilian University of Wurzburg , Bavaria , Germany. Her skills and expertise include X-ray Diffraction, Protein Structure , Crystal Structure, Powder X-ray Diffraction, Crystallization, X-ray Crystallography Crystallography, Crystal, Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, Membrane Proteins, Structure Determination Single Crystal Structural Biology Macromolecular etc.
She earned her Master's degree in Science from Aligarh Muslim University and was a Doctoral Researcher at National Institute of Immunology (NII) , New Delhi India.
Links/References:
RBTC Global Nominee. SEEMA QAMAR , Biochemist, Senior Researcher at University of Cambridge, UK. Home Town in India Add. Click side arrow for profile details.
She is presently exploring the involvement of oxidative stress in comorbid prevalence of anxiety disorders with cognitive impairment and hypertension. Current research projects include a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) funded project, which is focused on determining the role of antioxidant defense mechanisms mediated by a Regulator of G-Protein Signaling Protein (RGS)-2 in anxiety-like behavior of rats. Involvement of PKC, p38 MAPK and calpains in regulation of these mediators specifically involvement of antioxidant defense enzymes including glutathione reductase 1 and glyoxalase 1 in anxiety-like behavior of rats is being examined. Her recent work has identified that induction of oxidative stress via pharmacological intervention or via induction of psychological stress of acute sleep-deprivation, both lead to anxiety-like behaviour in rats.
Seema Qamar is also Affiliated member of Society For Neuroscience (SFN), American Society For Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (ASPET), Association of Scientists of Indian Origin (ASIOA), International Society of Behavioral Neuroscience (IBNS), Anxiety Disorders Association of America (ADAA). She also works as Journal Reviewer, Editorial Board Member and Grant Reviewer.
Links/References
Professionals in Medicine
RBTC Global Nominee AIMAN HAIDER. Consultant Histopathologist at University College London, London, UK. India. Alumna: Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, AMU. Aligarh, India. Click side arrow for profile details.
Dr. Haider worked as a Specialist registrar at Department of cellular pathology at University College London hospital and was a clinical research fellow at the division of surgery and interventional science UCL. She now works as a consultant urological pathologist at UCLH and counties to work alongside numerous clinical trials and collaborative research projects. She has lectured nationally and internationally and is also a Mentor in the International Trainee support scheme at Royal College of Pathologists.
Trained as a medical practitioner, Aiman did her MBBS and MD from Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College in Aligarh following which she was a Senior Resident at GB pant Hospital, India.
Sources/References:https://www.linkedin.com/in/aiman-haider-20aa2119/?originalSubdomain=ukhttps://www.researchgate.net/profile/Aiman_Haider
Change Makers in Social /International Development
RBTC Global Nominee. SHAHEEN AMAAN. Community Advice Officer, Local Council. United Kingdom . Home Town: Bhopal Madhya Pradesh. Click side arrow for profile details.
Outside of work, Shaheen enjoy cooking, gardening, walking, listening to music and visiting places with beautiful scenery.
Links/References:ADD
Making an impact through Media & Communications
RBTC Global Nominee. NASREEN MUNNI KABIR, Documentary Filmmaker and Producer, London UK. Home Town/Origin: Hyderabad, India. Click side arrow for profile details.
Through her documentaries, Kabir has introduced the West to Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan— a rare feat which no documentary filmmaker could achieve. Having pursued her Master’s degree in cinema studies at a Paris university, she organised one of the first major Indian film festivals in France at the Georges Pompidou Centre in 1983 and in 1985 when over 100 films were screened. Among her other talents, Kabir is an excellent cook. She is also a prolific writer.
Preserving the history of cinema is a priority for Kabir. The passion has prompted her to take up the painstaking job of transcribing the dialogue of some classic Hindi films and publishing them with Hindi, Urdu and English translations. She is the first author who has documented the entire dialogue and songs of landmark films (Mughal-e-Azam, Awaara, Mother India and Pyaasa) in a four-language format (Hindi, Urdu, Romanised Hindi/Urdu and an English translation).
Kabir’s journey in Britain began with the popular programme 'Movie Mahal' which was telecasted in the eighties. She won the 1999 Women of Achievement Award in Arts & Culture in the UK and became a governor on the board of the British Film Institute in 2000, serving a six-year term. After being a consultant for over 28 years for Channel 4 TV, and continuing to curate its 20-part Indian film season, Kabir has come a long way in the field of non-fiction film making. She believes that documentaries must always have an element of storytelling in order to connect with audiences. Some of her published work includes Guru Dutt: A Life in Cinema, ,Talking Films & Talking Songs with Javed Akhtar, Bollywood:The Indian Cinema Story , Lata Mangeshkar In Her Own Voice , The dialogue of Pyaasa: Guru Dutt's immortal classic and The dialogue of Devdas: Bimal Roy’s Immortal Classic.
She is an inspirational woman to all the authors out there who believe that books will always provide more information and deeper insight into an artist’s thinking because there is a lot more research and time behind such work. In the 1980s, when there were virtually no books on Hindi cinema and no way of finding out much about a person except for film magazines, she was the one who looked at the films carefully and asked the filmmakers and actors questions that would take them back to the film, the scenery, the detail. She is a silent observer, a hard worker and an achiever . A bulk of Kabir’s professional life has been spent on asking, listening, teasing out details and conducting research. After having a working experience of so many years she's still dedicated and passionate about her work.
References/Links
Impassioned Authors and Poets
RBTC Global Nominee. FARAH SIDDIQUI MATIN. Poet, Author. Dublin, Ireland. India Hometown: Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh. Click side arrow for profile details.
She is a recipient of many honors and awards and from national and international organizations, which includes “Hindustan Times Woman Award 2017”, “Rising Star India Award 2016” by the London Organization ‘We Are The City’, “The Best Poetess Debut Award” in 2015, 100 women honors award in 2016 by Tamanna Udaan Ki, Jaipur, Nominated as an incredible women writer of India in 2016 New Delhi, Outstanding poetess by BBIS Media club in association with Creative world media academy, New Delhi, etc.
References/Sources:https://www.pressreader.com/india/hindustan-times-lucknow-live/20170528/281479276366565http://lifeandlegends.com/farah-siddiqui-matin-translated-farah-siddiqui-matin/
Creative Contributors to the Arts
RBTC Global Nominee. ASMA KHAN, Chef, Restaurateur, Cookbook Author. London, United Kingdom. Alumni: La Martinier College, Kolkata, India. Click side arrow for profile details.
Khan grew up in Calcutta. She has said that she and her siblings were treated equally by her parents, and that she and her mother "made peace while I was still very young." Her father is Rajput from western Uttar Pradesh. Her mother is from West Bengal and had a catering business in the 1970s and 1980s. Khan attended La Martiniere in Calcutta.
In 1996 her husband moved to SOAS University of London to teach, and Khan started studying law at King's College London. She graduated with a PhD in British Constitutional Law in 2012.
Source/References:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asma_Khan
Achieving Academic Excellence
RBTC Global Nominee. SALMA RAHEEM, Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour, Management School, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom. Home Town: Kerala, India [ RBTC Kerala] . Alumna: London School of Economics. London. Click side arrow for profile details
Salma's research interests include the impact of multicultural individuals, the management of multicultural teams and the development of leadership and inclusive cultures for organisational diversity. Her work has been published in the Journal of International Business Studies, as a book chapter in the Handbook of Human Resource Management in the Middle East as well as practitioner papers. Her work has also been presented at several conferences. She enjoys using a mixed methods approach to research. Her thesis explores the employment of multicultural individuals, their ability to process and communicate multiple perspectives and their potential to enhance team productivity and cohesion in diverse teams. The context of her research focus is in MNCs in emerging economies such as the Middle East with implications for furthering research in areas of international human resource management, talent management, cross-cultural management, identity and team dynamics.
Salma is a Fellow of The Higher Education Academy, UK. She's won several awards for her teaching including the Class Teaching Excellence Award for Inspirational Teaching (2018-19), at the LSE and the British Journal of Industrial Relations Teaching Fellowship 2014-15, (competitive) at the Department of Management (LSE). She has taught for school students (widening participation), undergraduate, graduate and executive programs on several management topics including, HR, organisational behaviour, leadership, negotiations and marketing and consumer behaviour.
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RBTC Global Nominee. RANA PARWEEN, External Examiner and Associate Academic Leader at Askham Bryan College York, United Kingdom. Home Town: Aligarh, India. Alumna: Aligarh Muslim University, India. Add photo/update profile.
Rana Parween is skilled in Lecturing, Higher Education, Public Speaking, research, Science, Curriculum Design, Adult Education, Curriculum Development, Statistics, E-learning, Teaching, University teaching and external examining. Rana, a resident of England, completed her studies, PhD in Biodiversity and Conservation from University of York, Postgraduate Certificate in Education from The University of Huddersfield, Master's degree in Wildlife Biology and Bachelor of Science in Zoology from Aligarh Muslim University.
Links/References:
Youth Inspirations: Pursuing cutting-edge PhD /post doctoral research
RBTC Global Youth Nominee. ANAM FATIMA. PhD, Senior Research Associate at University of East Anglia, United Kingdom Alumna Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. Click side arrow for profile details.
Links/References
RBTC Global Youth Nominee. NIDA ALI. PhD, Post doctoral Researcher, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom. Alumna University of Hyderabad, India. Click side arrow for profile details.
In another project, I study the noise and heterogeneity at the level of single cell in Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis by applying single-molecule RNA-fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), fluorescent imaging and MATLAB based computational analysis.
Nida completed her PhD project "Studies on the functions and mechanisms of action of the endoribonuclease RNase E in Escherichia coli" under the guidance of Dr. J Gowrishankar with a publication "Cross-subunit catalysis and a new phenomenon of recessive resurrection in Escherichia coli RNase E (2020) Nucleic Acids Research". Nida applies the techniques of proteomics, transcriptomics, single-molecule RNA-fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), fluorescent imaging and MATLAB based computational analysis, microbiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, genetic engineering, confocal microscopy and genetics in my study. Her broad research interest generally lies in and around microbiology.
Links/References
RBTC Global Youth Nominee. UMMUL FAYIZA. Doctoral candidate at the School of Law, University of Warwick, U.K. Home Town: Kannur, Kerala, India [RBTC Kerala]. Alumna Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India. Click side arrow for profile details.
Ummul Fayiza is a doctoral candidate at the School of Law, University of Warwick. Her research lies in the areas of rights, gender, law and religion. She is a holder of Chancellor’s International Scholarship, University of Warwick (2022-25). She has received MA in Political Science (2013-15), followed by an MPhil (2015-17) at the Centre for Political Studies (CPS) from India's leading research university, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Ummul was awarded with prestigious National and Institutional fellowships during her Graduate Studies such as Junior Research Fellowship in 2018 and The Nirman Foundation Fellowship in 2014.
Ummul Fayiza is a regular commentator on Indian Muslim Women's issues for various newspapers, magazines and websites in India and has contributed more than fifty articles that were published by leading publishers around the globe. Her first book ‘Islamic Feminism’ was published in 2020. In addition to this, she has been presenting research papers at various international and national conferences held in the United Kingdom, Canada, Qatar, New Delhi, and Indonesia.
Global Rising Beyond the Ceiling Team
Dr. Farah K. Usmani, President, Rising Beyond The Ceiling, New York
RBTC Coordinator United Kingdom, TBD
Contributors: Shaheen Usmani, Faiza Abbasi, Miriam Fozia Rahman, RBTC Kerala Team, Tazeen Beg, and many alumni and friends across the world