Fareena Alam (born 1978) is a British

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and program designer. She was formerly the

editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, organization, a ...

of '' Q News''.

Background and career

Alam was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

i Chittagonian parents. She spent her childhood and formative years in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

where her father was a civil servant. During this time she was elected as the vice-president and then president of the United Nations Students' Association,

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national university, national Public university, public research university in Singapore. It was officially established in 1980 by the merging of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University ...

, for which she organised a six-month awareness campaign called ‘The Children of Bangladesh.’ The campaign highlighted the plight of the street children and she then took the campaign a stage further by leading a student delegation of 20 to carry out relief work in Bangladesh for three weeks in 1998. After graduating from university and returning to England, from 2003 to 2007, she was editor of '' Q News''. She was a freelance contributor to British and international media outlets until 2017. Her major works include a cover story for

Newsweek International ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

. She was a co-founder of the Radical Middle Way Project which is a revolutionary grassroots initiative aimed at articulating a relevant mainstream understanding of Islam that is dynamic, proactive and relevant to young British Muslims. The project was funded by the British government under the early years of its Prevent scheme and by 2009 is said to have received approximately £1.2 million. The RMW's partnership with the government ended in 2010 after the changes made to the Prevent scheme by the newly elected Conservative government.

Awards

In 2005, Alam was named Media Professional of the Year by

Islamic Relief Islamic Relief Worldwide is an international NGO founded in the United Kingdom in 1984. It has international headquarters in Birmingham and a network of national offices, affiliated partners, registered branches and country offices spread over ...

. In 2006, she was named Media Professional of the Year at the Asian Women of Achievement Awards.

Personal life

She was raised as a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

. In June 2002, she married Abdul-Rehman, a Canadian-born teacher of Punjabi-Pakistani heritage. They met in June 2001 whilst attending a conference organised by the

Zaytuna Institute Zaytuna College is a private liberal arts college in Berkeley, California and is the first accredited Muslim undergraduate college in the United States. It was built on the foundation of an educational institute, founded in 1996 by Hamza Yusuf ...

in San Francisco.

References

External links

*
Fareena Alam
on

guardian.co.uk ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

Q News magazine websiteAsian Women of Achievement Awards

NS Interview - Fareena Alam
''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

'' *Alam, Fareena
A humane Muslim future
. ''Open Democracy''. 8 March 2005 *Alam, Fareena

''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

''. 12 February 2006 *Alam, Fareena
Five Principles for Islam's Future
''Qantara.de''. 15 September 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Alam, Fareena 1978 births Living people English Muslims English people of Bangladeshi descent English women journalists English magazine editors English women magazine editors Muslim writers British Asian writers 21st-century English women writers The Guardian journalists Press TV people Journalists from London British women magazine editors

Background and career

Awards

Personal life

See also

References

External links