Read on the who's who on the power list of British Asian women from across the business, arts, media, voluntary and public sectors
BY MONSUR CHOUDHURY | MAY 27, 2009
1) Shami Chakrabarti
Shami Chakrabarti is the director of the human rights group Liberty since 2003. Post 9/11 and 7/7 she has been strongly involved in promoting and defending human rights. She graduated from London School of Economics with a LLB. For the past seven years she has constantly pleaded for civil rights in the courts and the Houses of Parliament. In 2006 she was shortlisted in the Channel 4 Political awards for the ?Most Inspiring Political Figure? award. Shami was beaten to the first place by Jamie Oliver. Other nominees were Tony Blair, Bob Geldof, David Cameron and George Galloway. She can be regularly seen on a variety of TV shows.
2) Irene Zubaida Khan
Irene Zubaida Khan is the seventh secretary general of Amnesty International. Having engaged in dialogue regarding human rights issues in various countries in 2006 she won the Sydney Peace Prize. The decision to become an activist was made when she witnessed human rights abuses as a teenager. Irene was born in Bangladesh in 1956. She left for Ireland and than England where she graduated in law at the Victoria University of Manchester. She then graduated in public international law and human rights, in 1978.
3) Parveen Kumar
Parveen heads the British Medical Association. She wrote a book called Clinical Medicine which is widely read by medical students and doctors worldwide. The book is currently in its sixth edition.
4) Zahida Manzoor
Zahida is the legal services complaints commissioner and legal services ombudsman for England and Wales. The handling of complaints by legal organisations is lead by her.
5) Sheetal Mehta
Sheetal manages Innovative Social Ventures, helping people get into technology related business and acting as an arbitrator between the government and business people.
6) Meena Pathak
Meena has taken home-made Indian food to mainstream supermarkets. She often flies to south Asia to enquire about new recipes.
7) Zarin Patel
Zarin is finance director of the BBC, making her the first ever woman to hold that position. She handles the annual ?4billion budget.
8) Ruby McGregor Smith
Ruby is chief executive of MITIE, a support services group. She is the first and only Asian woman to be head of a FTSE 250 company.
9) Meera Syal
Meera is a successful British Asian comedian, playwright and actress. She rose to fame when she performed in Goodness Gracious Me.
10) Sayeeda Warsi
Sayeeda Warsi was born in Dewsbury in 1971, and is currently vice chairman of the Conservative Party. She attended Birkdale High School and Dewsbury College and then she qualified in law at the University of Leeds. She is part of the Shadow cabinet, and also a lawyer.
