Yasmin Alibhai-Brown was exiled from her birthplace, Uganda, in 1972 is a journalist, broadcaster, and author. She is a weekly columnist for the I newspaper and has written for the Daily Mirror, Guardian, Observer, Sunday Times, Mail on Sunday, Daily Mail, New York Times, Time Magazine and other publications. She has won several awards including the Orwell prize for political writing and, in 2017, National Press Awards columnist of the year prize. She was specially commended for this award again in 2018 and was shortlisted in 2023 Society of Editors awards.
She is a part time professor of journalism at Middlesex University and was governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company for ten years. She was co-chair of major Imperial College/Health Trust research project headed by Lord Ara Darzai on patient safety. She is a national and international public speaker, a consultant on diversity and inclusion and trustee of various arts organisations. She is co-founder of the charity British Muslims for Secular Democracy. Their new report The Inner Lives of Troubled Young Muslims was published in November 2020.
Her recent books include Refusing the Veil, Exotic England (about England’s infatuation with the east), In Defence of Political Correctness, and Ladies Who Punch. She has twice been voted the 10th most influential Asian in Britain. She has eight Hon degrees and sits on the boards of arts organisations. She is also a keen cook and theatre buff.
