Shelina Zahra Janmohamed
Shelina Zahra Janmohamed is the author of "Love in a Headscarf", a humorous and irreverent memoir about growing up as a Muslim woman. She writes regularly for EMEL magazine, a leading glossy Muslim lifestyle magazine. She also writes for the Times Online, the National (based in the UAE) and has written for the Guardian and Comment is Free.
She has her own award-winning blog which is now four years old at spirit21.co.uk. She has travelled with the British Foreign and Commonwealth office to Darfur, Egypt, Saudia 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.
Shelina was named by The Times newspaper and the UK Equalities 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. She is a graduate of New College, Oxford. She is married and currently lives in London.
“Chemistry could sparkle in z most surprising places and between z most unlikely people.”
“Poetry is designed to inspire love, and islam is about falling in love with the creator of the universe.”
“Human beings like to twist things to meet their own selfish needs.”
“Islam has rules. Once they are part of your life, you dont notice them anymore.”
“In this modern day, when only what we see is allowed to have certainity, and when scientific data seems to hold the trump card for truth, when only what can be measured exists, love defies all these strictures and dances joyfully before the eyes of human beings, teasing them with the promise of the unknown.”
“How can one who’s in love pretend not to be in love?”
“It is Love that transforms it from black and white, to breathtaking, beautiful inspiring colors”
“love can blind you to their imperfections.”
“You can only ever be complete when you've seen yourself, through someone else's eyes”
“The experiences would be richer and more meaningful if I had someone to share them with”
“Don’t just hope it happens you have to make it happen”
“I refused to change the way I practiced my faith or to let fear stop me from carrying out what I believed in.”
“Seeing is not with the eyes, but the heart. That is why love underpinned all our experiences”
“Time rarely changed someone’s response to a critical issue”
“I’m thinking about the discrepancies between what people say is Islam and what Islam actually is!”
“You have to know where you’ve come from to know where you are going”
“Weren’t human being full of surprises?”
“It all comes with time and patience”
“Don’t look for wealth and beauty as these will last only a short time , and then you’ll be left with nothing. Look for piety and faith and you’ll get everything including wealth and beauty with it”
“His smile can lift me out of even the darkest mood”