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Yasmin Alibhai-Brown

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Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
Born
Yasmin Damji

(1949-12-10) 10 December 1949 (age 75)
Kampala, Uganda
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)Journalist, author
Notable credit(s)Independent and Evening Standard columnist
Children2

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown (born Yasmin Damji on 10 December 1949) is a Ugandan-born British journalist and author, who describes herself as a "leftie liberal, anti-racist, feminist, Muslim, part-Pakistani, and ... a very responsible person".[2] Currently a regular columnist for The Independent and the Evening Standard,[3] she is a well-known commentator on issues relating to immigration, diversity and multiculturalism.[4][5] She is a founder member of British Muslims for Secular Democracy.[6]

Early life and family

Alibhai-Brown's mother was born in East Africa and her father moved there from British India in the 1920s.[7] Born into the Ugandan Asian community in Kampala[8] in 1949,[9] she belongs to the Nizari branch of the Ismaili faith.[10] After graduating in English literature from Makerere University in 1972, she left Uganda for Britain, along with her niece, Farah Damji, shortly before the expulsion of Ugandan Asians by Idi Amin[10] and completed a Master of Philosophy degree in literature at Linacre College, Oxford in 1975.[3] After working as a teacher, particularly with immigrants and refugees, she moved into journalism in her mid-thirties.[10] She is married to Colin Brown, Chairman of the Consumer Services Panel of the Financial Services Authority;[7] the couple have a daughter and Alibhai-Brown has a son from a previous marriage.[8]

Career and views

A journalist on the New Statesman magazine in the early 1980s, Alibhai-Brown now contributes a weekly column to The Independent.[11] She has also written for The Guardian, The Observer, The New York Times, Time magazine, Newsweek and the Daily Mail,[12] and has appeared on the current affairs TV shows Dateline London and The Wright Stuff. Alibhai-Brown has won numerous awards for her journalism, including the EMMA Media Personality of the Year in 2000, the George Orwell Prize for Political Journalism in 2002 and the EMMA Award for Journalism in 2004.[3]

Alibhai-Brown was a research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a think tank associated with New Labour, from 1996 to 2001,[13] though she ended her connection with the Labour Party over the war in Iraq and other issues, and supported the Liberal Democrats in the 2005 and 2010 general elections.[14][15] She is Senior Research Associate at the Foreign Policy Centre,[16] an Honorary Fellow at Liverpool John Moores University[12] and Honorary Visiting Professor at Cardiff[3] and Lincoln[12] Universities.

Alibhai-Brown was appointed a Member of the British Empire (MBE) in 2001, but in 2003 Benjamin Zephaniah's public refusal of an OBE inspired her to return the award. She wrote that her decision had been made partly in a growing spirit of republicanism and partly in protest at the Labour government, particularly its conduct of the war in Iraq,[17] and has since criticised the British honours system as "beyond repair".[18]

In May 2011, Alibhai-Brown wrote in the Independent that Muslims and others should stop focusing solely on the wrongdoings of Israel, saying that, "We Muslims need to accept our burdens too." She also said that, "It is no longer morally justifiable for activists to target only Israel and either ignore or find excuses for corrupt, murderous Arab despots. That kind of selectivity discredits pro-Palestinian campaigners and dishonours the principles of equality and human rights."[19] Brown previously condemned ethnic minority campaigners against racism failing to mention white victims of racially motivated crimes, suggesting they were guilty of double standards. Highlighting cases such as the murder of Ross Parker, Alibhai-Brown wrote: "Our values are worthless unless all victims of these senseless deaths matter equally", adding "to treat some victims as more worthy of condemnation than others is unforgivable and a betrayal of anti-racism itself".[20][21]

Criticisms

Alibhai-Brown has attracted criticism for her views. Michael Wharton has accused her of an excessive pursuit of political correctness: "At 3.6 degrees on the Alibhai-Brown scale, it sets off a shrill scream that will not stop until you’ve pulled yourself together with a well-chosen anti-racist slogan."[22] Stephen Pollard accused her of racism while calling her opinions "utterly vile" in The Spectator.[23][dead link‍]

On 25 August 2008, she appeared on Five's The Wright Stuff discussion programme. In a discussion about an employment issue relating to white men, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown said: "Take his advice. Don't apply. It would be great if you lot just went away; white, middle class men. We'd just walk in wouldn't we." When challenged by the host for the day, Richard Bacon, "Is that not a racist comment?" she replied: "Of course".[24]

Commentator Douglas Murray accused her of disregarding the lives of British soldiers killed in action: "The vindication of her own opinion is of more importance to her than the lives of British and American troops and Iraqi civilians."[25]

On 5 May 2011 Yasmin was on the panel of BBC's Question Time show and was criticised for her opinion on how Osama bin Laden should have been given a respectful burial.[citation needed]

Select bibliography

  • The Colour of Love: Mixed Race Relationships (with Anne Montague) (1992). London: Virago. ISBN 1-85381-221-8
  • Racism (Points of View), (with Colin Brown), (1992). Hodder Wayland. ISBN 1-85210-651-4
  • No Place Like Home (1995). London: Virago. ISBN 1-85381-642-6
  • True Colours (1999). London: Institute for Public Policy Research. ISBN 1-86030-083-9
  • Who Do We Think We Are? Imagining the New Britain (2000). London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-025598-2
  • After Multiculturalism (2000). London: Foreign Policy Centre. ISBN 0-9535598-8-2
  • Mixed Feelings: The Complex Lives of Mixed Race Britons (2001). London: Women's Press. ISBN 0-7043-4706-7
  • Some of My Best Friends Are... (2004). London: Politico's. ISBN 1-84275-107-7


  1. ^ Ismailimail: Outspoken journalist tells food tales (7 September 2009)
  2. ^ "Yasmin Alibhai Brown: Jack Straw is right to ask hard questions about Asian men". The Independent. London. 10 January 2011.
  3. ^ a b c d "Yasmin Alibhai-Brown". Cardiff University. Retrieved 20 April 2009.
  4. ^ McDonagh, Melanie (23 October 2000). "The New Statesman Profile - Yasmin Alibhai-Brown". New Statesman. Retrieved 20 April 2009. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  5. ^ Smallman, Etan (4 December 2006). "Independent Woman". Epigram. Retrieved 20 April 2009. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  6. ^ The Independent; Muslims can learn from this new Jewish group; 12 February 2007.
  7. ^ a b Golding, Rosalind (21 January 2001). "A Nest Egg - What's That Then?". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 20 April 2009. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. ^ a b Alibhai-Brown, Yasmin (26 September 2008). "Love in Your Fifties". Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 20 April 2009.
  9. ^ Debretts biodata
  10. ^ a b c Chatterjee, Sonali Jha (17 February 2007). "Ismailis in the News: Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Writer and Journalist". Ismaili Mail. Retrieved 20 April 2009. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  11. ^ "Yasmin Alibhai-Brown". London: The Independent. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ a b c Alibhai-Brown, Yasmin. "Who Am I?". Retrieved 20 April 2009.
  13. ^ "Shaping Interculturalism in Youthwork - Yasmin Alibhai-Brown". Retrieved 20 April 2009.
  14. ^ Alibhai-Brown, Yasmin (3 May 2005). "Vote Liberal Democrat, Get Left-wing Activists". London: The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 20 April 2009. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  15. ^ "In conversation with... Yasmin Alibhai-Brown". Total Politics. 5 May 2011. Retrieved 8 October 2012.
  16. ^ "Foreign Policy Centre: Staff". Retrieved 20 April 2009.
  17. ^ Alibhai-Brown, Yasmin (1 December 2003). "Why I Have Decided to Give Back My Gong". London: The Independent. Retrieved 20 April 2009. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  18. ^ Alibhai-Brown, Yasmin (19 June 2006). "These Shameless Honours Dishonour Us All". London: The Independent. Retrieved 20 April 2009. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  19. ^ Stop blaming Israel for every grievance in the Middle East
  20. ^ Alibhai Brown, Yasmin (26 October 2006). "When the victim is white, does anyone care?". The Evening Standard. London. Retrieved 28 July 2011.
  21. ^ Alibhai-Brown, Yasmin (3 February 2003). "Black racism is every bit as bad as white racism". The Independent. London. Retrieved 28 July 2011.
  22. ^ cited in "Michael Wharton". London: The Times. 25 January 2006. Retrieved 20 April 2009. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  23. ^ Pollard, Stephen (2 June 2008). "Yasmin Alibhai-Brown Is a Disgrace". The Spectator. Retrieved 20 April 2009. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  24. ^ [1]
  25. ^ Murray, Douglas (2005). Neoconservatism: Why We Need It. Social Affairs Unit. ISBN 1-904863-05-1.

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