Julie Siddiqi

Julie Siddiqi is a mentor, consultant and activist with a focus on gender issues, Jewish-Muslim relations and social action. She has a background in community grass roots work spanning 20 years and founded a local charity for Muslim women's needs which she led for 10 years, gaining an acute knowledge of the personal challenges faced by women. She nationally coordinated The Big Iftar during Ramadan 2014 culminating in the first ever Iftar reception at Lambeth Palace hosted by Archbishop Justin Welby. She is an Advisor for the Jewish led social action project, Mitzvah Day and is a Patron for Muju, a Jewish/Muslim theatre company now in its tenth year.

Julie was the Executive Director of the Islamic Society of Britain from 2010-2014 and led on several high profile campaigns during this period. She represented the UK’s Islamic charities at the Enough Food IF rally in Hyde Park speaking to an audience of 40k. She spearheaded a national community based campaign against sexual grooming and child exploitation and was pivotal in peace initiatives following the murder of Lee Rigby in Woolwich. She has spoken on many major news programmes including BBC Radio 4 and Newsnight, at the Christian festival, Greenbelt and the Jewish festival, Limmud, and at receptions hosted by the British Armed Forces.

Julie was previously a member of the Government’s National Muslim Women's Advisory Group and mentor for the Prince of Wales Charity, Mosaic. She is currently Chair of her local Standing Advisory Council for Religious Education and also sits on the national Anti-Muslim Hatred Working Group as an independent member.

Julie was listed in the Times Newspaper 100 Most Influential Muslim Women in the UK list in 2009. She was recently a contributor to Pause for Thought with Vanessa Feltz on Radio 2 and was a judge for the BBC local radio Frank Gillard Awards in 2013.

She has participated in two pieces of work with the University of Cambridge - Contextualising Islam in Britain and Narratives of Conversion and is an alumni and now faculty member for the Cambridge Coexist Leadership Programme 2013 and an alumni of the Women in Leadership, from Windsor Leadership, 2015. Julie is Founder and Director of Sadaqa Day, a one day Muslim-led focus on social action, which was launched in March 2015 and is co-chair of the recently formed Jewish and Muslims women’s network, Nisa-Nashim.

Julie converted to Islam in March 1995 and is happily married with four children.