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Syima Aslam

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English bank executive and literary critic

Syima AslamMBE Hon. FRSL
BornPakistan
NationalityBritish
OccupationLiterature Festival Director
Known forFellow of the Royal Society of Literature

Syima Aslam MBE Hon. FRSL is the CEO, Artistic Director and Founder of the Bradford Literature Festival.

Biography

Syima Aslam was born in Pakistan and moved to Halifax, West Yorkshire. She then moved to Bradford while a schoolgirl.

In 2012, The Guardian published an op-ed by Aslam, where she describes all the factors a modern Muslim woman has to consider when she decides whether or not to wear a hijab.

In 2014, Aslam and her friend Irna Qureshi, an ethnographer, author and oral historian specialising in British Asian arts, founded the Bradford Literature Festival. The festival has since grown to be a significant event in the country's literary calendar. The Bradford Literature Festival is celebrated for its socio-economic and ethnic diversity, attracting over 115,000 visitors annually. Syima Aslam was motivated by her observations that people who needed to be present at cultural events were often absent. Similar festivals often cater predominantly to white, middle-class audiences in terms of content and ticket prices. This issue promotes an environment of exclusion where the mental wellbeing, inspiration, and overall benefits of arts and culture become accessible only to the privileged few. With the Bradford Literature Festival, she aimed to create something accessible and aspirational, bringing crucial conversations to those who needed to be part of them.

In 2019, the BBC News asked Aslam to sit on a six person panel to recommend the 100 "most inspiring" novels.

Aslam has also appeared several times on the popular podcast, The Graham Norton Book Club.

Awards and honours

In 2018, Syima Aslam was announced as the winner of the Hospital Club H100 Award in the publishing and writing category. In the same year she was also awarded Professional of the Year by Yorkshire Asian Business Awards.

Aslam was elected as an honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2019.

In 2020, Aslam won the Inspiring Professionals category of the inaugural Northern Asian Powerlist 2020.

She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to literature.

In 2023, Aslam was awarded 'Disruptor for Good' at Northern Power Women's Award for the work of the Bradford Literature Festival in challenging the norm and striving to make positive changes for society, with the vision to change lives through access to world-class arts, literature, and education for all.

In 2024 and 2025, Aslam was recognised in the Muslim 500 list as one of The 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World.

References

  1. "In conversation with Syima Aslam - RSA Journal". The RSA. 29 November 2023. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  2. ^ Claire Armitstead (26 June 2017). "Brontes, Bradford and Buddhist poetry - meet the women transforming the literary festival". The Guardian. p. 12. ISSN 0261-3077.
  3. Syima Aslam (10 December 2012). "To hijab or not to hijab- A Muslim Businesswoman's View". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 April 2014.
  4. "About the Author". Bollywood in Britain. 7 January 2011. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
  5. Claire Wilde (6 February 2015). "Bradford wins extra Arts Council funding". Bradford Telegraph and Argus. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
  6. Molly Flatt (30 July 2018). "5 things inspiring Bradford Literature Festival's Syima Aslam right now". The Bookseller. Archived from the original on 10 November 2019.
  7. "Key Information". Bradford Literature Festival. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  8. "Bradford festival hailed most successful yet after attracting 110,000 people". Bradford Telegraph and Argus. 13 July 2023. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  9. Columnist, Guest (13 June 2023). "How book festivals can fix their diversity problem". The Big Issue. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  10. Rehman, Nasreen (29 July 2023). "INTERVIEW: 'PEOPLE EXPECTED ME TO SET UP A SOUTH ASIAN FESTIVAL' — SYIMA ASLAM". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  11. "100 'most inspiring' novels revealed by BBC Arts". BBC News. 5 November 2019. Retrieved 10 November 2019. The reveal kickstarts the BBC's year-long celebration of literature.
  12. Alison Flood (5 November 2019). "Discworld dishes Moby-Dick: BBC unveils 100 'novels that shaped our world'". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 November 2019. There's no Wuthering Heights, no Moby-Dick, no Ulysses, but there is Half of a Yellow Sun, Bridget Jones's Diary and Discworld: so announced the panel of experts assembled by the BBC to draw up a list of 100 novels that shaped their world.
  13. "Margaret Atwood, L.M. Montgomery, Carol Shields featured on BBC's list of 100 novels that shaped the world". CBC News. 8 November 2019. Retrieved 9 November 2019. Five Canadian books are on the list: Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels, Unless by Carol Shields, Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery, Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood and American War by Omar El Akkad.
  14. "Amazon.co.uk: Episode 2 - The Graham Norton Book Club: Kindle Store". www.amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  15. "Syima Aslam wins Hospital Club Award". The Bookseller. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  16. admin. "YABA Announces Award Finalists! | Yaba". Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  17. "RSL Fellows: Syima Aslam". Royal Society of Literature.
  18. "Northern Asian Powerlist 2020 winners – Syima Aslam | TheBusinessDesk.com". Yorkshire. 8 October 2020. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  19. "No. 63571". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 2022. p. N16.
  20. "How Bradford woman has 'challenged the norm' to bring about positive change". Bradford Telegraph and Argus. 22 March 2023. Retrieved 5 January 2024.
  21. "Syima Aslam (new) | The Muslim 500". 19 September 2024.


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