Muslim Women's achievement in Britian

Born and raised in the West Midlands, Zareen Roohi Ahmed began her career in design and marketing but soon moved into the public sector to progress in project management in an urban regeneration company in Derby. Always wanting to work for a children's charity, in 1998 Zareen began work as a fundraising & marketing manager at the NSPCC. Five years later Zareen was appointed as Regional Manager & then National Operations Director at The Experience Corps a new government initiative designed to encourage people into volunteering. Zareen led teams across the country to help recruit over 200,000 people into volunteering; over 20,000 of which were of Muslim origin.

Throughout her career Zareen has been a keen volunteer herself, mentoring young Asians who are underachieving at school, presenting on an Islamic Community Radio station, chairing a centre in Derby called JET, Job's, Education & Training and helping a number of other national charities. In 2004 the mother of two who is a keen painter founded a community arts organisation called 'Silverleaf' Arts which aims to get isolated people, especially women involved in their communities through innovative workshops in visual Islamic arts.

Zareen's PhD study about the lack of involvement of Muslim women in Britain inspired her last year to set up her own management consultancy, Lightbox, which focuses on addressing root causes within deprived communities in Britain and promoting inter-faith dialogue and understanding.

Zareen was appointed CEO of the British Muslim Forum on May 1st 2006, a body that addresses Muslim social, economic and religious needs.