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Featured
Scholars

Featured Scholars

Nahim Ahmed MBE | MSc Strategic Management of Projects, UCL

Nahim aims to direct and deliver projects/programmes that will help bring positive sustainable changes to the wider community; particularly to deprived areas affected by various issues such as poverty, unemployment, youth violence and more. Over the past decade, he has been committed to serving the most vulnerable members of our society through his work in the private, public and voluntary sectors. His undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Youth and Community work, Law and Community Leadership and more recently, an MSc in Strategic Management of Projects via the Aziz Foundation complements his current role as Strategic Community Engagement Manager. In June 2021, Nahim was recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list and awarded an MBE for his services to disadvantaged young people in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Magid Magid | MA Art and Politics, SOAS

Magid Magid is currently studying for an MA in Arts and Politics at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is the Founder & Director of ‘Union of Justice’, a European wide POC led organisation dedicated to racial and climate justice. He was a member of the European Parliament representing Yorkshire & the Humber, Mayor of Sheffield and an elected councillor on Sheffield City Council. Magid has also been named one of TIME 100 rising stars shaping the future of the world, ‘One Young World’ Politician of the Year 2019 and European Young Leader 2019.

Aisha Rimi | MA Magazine Journalism, City University Of London

Aisha Rimi studied for an MA in Magazine Journalism at City University of London, as part of the Aziz Foundation’s 2020-21 scholarship cohort. A journalist at The Independent, Aisha has been published across the press including in the The Telegraph, Time Out London, Bustle, gal-dem and more on race, class, gender, culture, entertainment and social issues. She has also been published in the anthology Cut From the Same Cloth featuring essays from 21 Muslim women about life in the UK.

Mohammed Hannan | Global Mba, University Of Manchester

As Head of Digital Innovation at Johnson & Johnson, Mohammed is responsible for building and developing a digital and innovation strategy for the UK Commercial division. After completing his Global MBA with Distinction at the University of Manchester, Mohammed previously led digital strategy and digital transformation in the Pharmaceutical industry at AstraZeneca. Mohammed was awarded ‘One to Watch’ at the British Muslim Awards 2022. The award recognises professionals and business leaders who are disrupting their industry and contributing significant impact. Mohammed is currently studying a PGDip in Theology and Religion at the University of Oxford.

Warda Reggane | MSc Sustainable Cities, King's College London

Warda is one of several scholars to be studying a postgraduate in sustainability, one of three new subject areas the Aziz Foundation we’re offering scholarships to in 2022/23. Motivated to improving the welfare of British Muslims, Warda is currently studying an MSc in Sustainable Cities at King’s College London. She aims to work on schemes that better living standards for British Muslims in council housing as well as develop living spaces that are integrated with nature.

Tasneem Rashid | MA Creative Writing, Birkbeck

Having completed an MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck University, Tasneem has since published her debut book with Bonnier Books. Tasneem is committed to telling stories that celebrate the culture and identity of today’s British Muslim woman. Her debut book centres on a Bengali British woman and she is the co-host of an award-winning podcast.

Hauwa Shehu | LLM International Economic Law, Justice and Development, Birkbeck

Having completed her LLM International Economic Law, Justice and Development at Birkbeck University, Hauwa is a Barrister working for the Crown Prosecution Service with experience across the breadth of criminal offences. Hauwa has long been interested in how historical, current and future international developments and crisis impact on the justice system and our communities.

Khadija Kothia | MSC History Of International Relations, LSE

As an Assistant News Editor at ITV News, Khadija covers news across the London, UK and foreign desks. Khadija was previously a UK news reporter at The Associated Press. Having completed her undergraduate in History, she became interested in historiography and dismantling normative historical narratives shaped through unequal power relations. This led her to pursue an MSc in History of International Relations. She now aims to amplify marginalised experiences through journalism to raise awareness about human rights.

Rakaya Fetuga | MA Creative Writing, Royal Holloway

As a poet, facilitator and events producer based in London, Rakaya’s work explores overlapping identities, faith and culture as self-affirmation. As a former Roundhouse Resident Artist, Rakaya wrote and performed her monodrama, ‘Unbraided’. Since graduating with an MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway, Rakaya has been commissioned by BBC, Microsoft, Bloomberg Philanthropies with Vanity Fair, English Touring Theatre and more. She has also worked in collaboration with Apple as part of Made in LDN arts engagement programmes. Currently, Rakaya is working on her first novel.

Mustakim Hasnath | MA Television Journalism, City University

Investigative Journalist Mustakim is continually touched by the very personal stories behind each person who he is privileged to meet through his work in journalism, be this as part of BBC documentaries he helps develop and produce, or investigative features he made alongside his BA English Language and Linguistics degree. Every story told is one step forward in the interests of helping to show audiences what’s really going on in the world – the good, bad, and the ugly.

Taqwa Sadiq | MA Ethnographic and Documentary Film, UCL

Taqwa is interested in storytelling via film, audio, art, and design to explore a wide range of issues from architecture, grief, wellbeing and poetry to decolonisation and Islamic cultural heritage in the UK, MENA and South Asia. During her BA Middle Eastern Studies (University of Cambridge), she realised that the rewriting of colonially-informed narratives is essential to challenge assumptions and foster more nuanced, critical thinking within British Muslim and wider non-Muslim communities.

Undertaking traditional Islamic studies at Cambridge Muslim College afforded Taqwa insight into the relevance of Islamic paradigms to post-colonial experiences. She aims to bring such useful but esoteric academic discourse into the universal languages of film and audio through personal human story-telling. The power of visual imagery to immortalise and express concepts in a way that words cannot is evidence in how Islamic heritage has successfully preserved its core ideas and values through art, poetry and architecture. Film and audio are media that can celebrate and contribute to this heritage.

Taqwa was recently awarded the Charles Parker Prize for her audio feature about using an ancient Persian poem and Islamic mystical ideas about breath to help heal from long Covid, made as part of her MA. She is a host on the #MadeAtUCL podcast, and is developing a decolonial Art, Craft, Design and Technology curriculum for British Muslim schoolchildren in partnership with Shakhsiyah Schools.