Salma Yaqoob
| Salma Yaqoob | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Leader of the Respect Party | |
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In office 8 August 2005 – 11 September 2012 |
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| Preceded by | Linda Smith |
| Succeeded by | Arshad Ali |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1971 (age 45–46) Bradford, England |
| Political party | Respect (2004–2012) |
| Alma mater | Aston University |
| Occupation | Psychotherapist |
| Religion | Islam |
| Website | www.salmayaqoob.com |
Salma Yaqoob (born 1971) is a British activist. She was formerly associated with the Respect Party, of which she was leader and vice-chairman, and a Birmingham City Councillor representing that party. She is the head of the Birmingham Stop the War Coalition and a spokesperson for Birmingham Central Mosque. On 11 September 2012, Yaqoob confirmed that she had left Respect.
Yaqoob's parents, Mohammad and Gulzarda Yaqoob, emigrated to the UK from Pakistan in the 1960s, and her father worked in a mill before joining the Royal Mail. They had 7 children – 3 daughters and 4 sons. Yaqoob was born in Bradford in 1971, but the family later moved to Birmingham, where she was raised. She describes herself during her formative years as being a "tomboyish girl" who played football on the streets of Alum Rock.
Yaqoob had to challenge her father's "cultural fears" to be allowed to enrol at university and eventually attended Aston University where she studied biochemistry and psychology and became a qualified psychotherapist. Yaqoob became politically active after the September 11 attacks. She claims to have been spat at on the streets of Birmingham in the days following the attacks.
Yaqoob has received death threats from Islamist extremists and far right extremists. In August 2009, Birmingham man Stuart Collins appeared in court charged with threatening to kill Yaqoob. He was also charged with racially and religiously aggravated harassment. In 2013 she was threatened with having her throat cut in an online article which talked about "smashing Pakistani people, taking a nail bomb into a Mosque and rioting in Birmingham" and then in the closing comment it said: “If that Salma Yaqeubs (sic) there, cut her f*****g throat.”
During her election campaigns, Yaqoob faced harassment and death threats from al Ghurabaa, an extremist-Islamist group later banned under the Terrorism Act 2006. Al-Ghurabaa claimed that is apostasy for Muslims to participate in Western democratic elections, and its members defaced her election posters with the word "Kafir". Yaqoob believed she was being targeted for being a Muslim woman in the public eye and for working with churches and synagogues.
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