Interview with Anjum Rahman

Abstract

Anjum Rahman was born in the village of Mahuwara in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Her family moved to New Zealand from Canada in 1972 when she was five years old. She became a naturalised New Zealand citizen in 1976. She was a chartered accountant for 30 years, working with a range of entities in the commercial, farming, and not - for - profit sectors. Rahman was a founding member of the New Zealand Islamic Women's Council, an organisation formed in 1990 to bring Muslim women tog ether and represent their concerns and was the media spokesperson. She is also a founding member of the Shama Ethnic Women's Trust and served as a trustee on its board from 2002 until 2019. Shama supports ethnic minority women through its social work servi ce, life - skills classes, and community development. Rahman has worked in the area of sexual violence prevention both as a volunteer and as part of Government working groups. Rahman was a spokesperson for the Muslim community following the Christchurch mo sque shootings in March 2019, in which 51 people were killed and 40 injured. In media interviews following the attack, she voiced frustration at the failure of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service and other government agencies to take concerns abo ut violence towards the Muslim community, Islamophobia, and the rise of the alt - right in New Zealand seriously. In response to the attacks, Rahman established the organisation Inclusive Aotearoa Collective T_hono to combat discrimination. Anjum was an ac tive member of the Waikato Interfaith Council for over a decade, and was a trustee of the Trust that governs Hamilton's community access broadcaster, Free FM. She is currently a trustee of Trust Waikato, the largest funder in the region, and on the governi ng council of InternetNZ. She is a member of international committees dealing with violent extremist content online, being the co - chair of the Christchurch Call Advisory Network and a member of the Independent Advisory Committee of the Global Internet Foru m for Countering Terrorism. In the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours, Rahman was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to ethnic communities and women; she was also shortlisted for the New Zealander of the Year Award.