Background
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" in order to be allowed to enrol at university and eventually attended Aston University where she studied biochemistry and psychology and became a qualified psychotherapist. At the age of 24 she met her husband, Aqil Chaudary, a general practitioner, and together they have 3 boys, all of whom live next door to Salma's parents in Birmingham. Yaqoob has revealed her family are supporters of Aston Villa FC.
Yaqoob became politically active after the September 11 attacks. Yaqoob asserts that she was spat at in the streets of Birmingham in the days following the attacks.
Read more about this topic: Salma Yaqoob
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)