THE Muslim community has hailed the appointment of its first woman leader as a “landmark moment”.

Zara Mohammed has been elected as the first female secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain, and, at 29, just happens to be the youngest too. She aims to “build a truly inclusive, diverse and representative body, one which is driven by the needs of British Muslims for the common good”.

It feels like a very important appointment and one which shines a much-needed beam of positivity for women from all religious or non-belief backgrounds, race or colour. To have a young woman of stature and vision break into a traditionally male position sets a wonderful benchmark for other young women looking for inspiration and role models to emulate.

It’s also a wonderful story for Scotland as Ms Mohammed is a training and development consultant from Glasgow, with a Masters in Human Rights Law from the University of Strathclyde. This is a proud moment for the city and a proud moment for my community and all ethnic groups. For women, looking to move into public life, an appointment like this means a great deal.

Ms Mohammed is well aware of her position: “Making history is a tremendous responsibility, but it’s very exciting to be a young female in this role and I hope I will inspire others.”

I’m sure she will. And it’s interesting to hear her talk of responsibilities, a word much missed from public discourse and one which has huge connotations for how she will guide the work of the council. She has major issues to confront such as the disproportionate consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic on Muslim communities across the UK. She plans to challenge misinformation around the virus, promote the vaccine to reassure those who have shown reluctance or concerns over taking it and to encourage guidance in order to keep safe.

Given how much Covid has impacted BAME communities and highlighted the deep-rooted structural inequalities that run like a sore through life in the UK, her work will be vital in this area.

Ms Mohammed formerly served as the assistant secretary-general so she understands first-hand the nuts and bolts of this important new position.

The Muslim Council as an umbrella body of mosques, Islamic schools and Muslim associations spanning the length and breadth of the UK, aims to empower “Muslim communities to achieve a just, cohesive and successful British society”. No mean ambition, especially in the current climate with a Prime Minister who has been openly hostile to Muslims, and women in particular, mocking our religious headwear and joking about letterboxes and bank robbers.

Certain corners of the press aren’t much better, supporting Johnson’s prejudiced tropes or carelessly using sensational headlines to whip up bigoted panic. The support site, Tell Mama UK, noted a significant rise in hate crimes against Muslim women in the wake of Johnson’s comments. Words have consequences as women in public and private life know to our peril.

Ms Mohammed could teach Johnson a thing or two about responsibility. She certainly has every intention of tackling any form of Islamophobia head on from her new position, not only in terms of its pervasiveness but also institutionally too. The Tory Government has turned a blind eye to this issue in their own ranks, kicking any investigations into the long grass, with mere lip service and lily-livered assurances that they will purge their party of it once and for all.

When Hope Not Hate published the results of their survey last year into the extent of anti-Muslim feeling in the Tory ranks, it made for shocking reading, with 57% of party members expressing negative views and many more repeating blatant racist myths, backed up in black and white in their preferred red top newspapers.

It’s against this backdrop of deep-rooted prejudice and scapegoating at the top levels of government in the UK that Zara Mohammed must make her mark. That would be no mean feat. But her determined vision is to combat it directly and dispel repeated negative stereotypes and ingrained bigotry.

She intends to reach out, as well as in, to her own to embrace “the diverse ethnic make-up of the Muslim community”, and to engage and empower young people and women, including both the interfaith community and civil society. I hope her work and efforts are duly recognised and highlighted across the mainstream media. It’s well past time for women of colour to be given platforms to shine.

What is vision without ambition and hope for change. I wish her the very best of luck with her endeavours. Insha Allah.