Kristiane Verena Backer (born 13 December 1965) is a German art dealer with a previous career as a television presenter, journalist and author residing in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Biography

At the age of 15, Backer went to the United States as an

exchange student A student exchange program is a program in which students from a secondary school (high school) or university study abroad at one of their institution's partner institutions. A student exchange program may involve international travel, but d ...

for a year. From 1987 to 1989 Backer volunteered at the private radio station

Radio Hamburg Radio Hamburg is a private commercial radio station based on Hamburg, Germany. Established in the 1980s to play popular music of the time, nowadays it plays hits from the 2000s onwards, on high rotation. Their slogan is ''Mehr Musik, mehr Vielfal ...

. In 1989 she moved to London to work at the then Europe-wide, exclusively English-language TV channel,

MTV Europe MTV Global (formerly as MTV Europe) is the international version of the American TV channel MTV, a 24-hour music and entertainment TV channel that began broadcasting on August 1, 1987, as part of the worldwide MTV network. Initially, MTV serve ...

. Backer was the first German to present and VJ there and among the programmes she presented were ''The Coca-Cola Report'', ''The European Top 20'' and ''Awake on the Wild Side''. She remained there until 1996. While still at MTV Europe, she created and moderated the youth program Bravo TV on the German TV channel

RTL II RTL Zwei (stylised as RTLZWEI), formerly spelled RTL 2 and RTL II, is a German-language television channel that is operated by ''RTL2 Television GmbH & Co. KG''. RTL2 is a private television broadcaster with a full program ''(Vollprogramm)'' ...

from 1993–95. From 1996 to 1999 she presented the daily cultural programme ''The Ticket'' on

NBC Europe NBC Europe (formerly Super Channel, and later NBC Channel) was a satellite television network based in the United Kingdom that broadcast across Europe, and it was picked up by various European cable systems where available. The network was base ...

. From 2000 to 2009, Backer continued to do TV presenting as well as voiceover work. In 2005 she presented the in-flight music show for Emirate Airlines. For her work as a television presenter, Backer was awarded a

Goldene Kamera The Goldene Kamera ("Golden Camera") is an annual German film and television award, awarded by the Funke Mediengruppe. The award show is usually held in early February in Hamburg, but has also taken place in Berlin in the past. The gold-plate ...

award in 1994 and in 1993 and 1994 two

Bravo Otto The Bravo Otto is a German accolade honoring excellence of performers in film, television and music. Established in 1957, the award is presented annually, with winners selected by the readers of ''Bravo'' magazine. The award is presented in ...

awards. Backer also hosts and presents conferences, business presentations, and galas throughout

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Personal life

In 1992, Backer began dating former Pakistani cricketer and now former prime minister

Imran Khan Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi ( ur}; born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician and former Cricket captain who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2018 to until April 2022, when he was ousted through a no-confidenc ...

. He gave her books on Islam and took her travelling with him through

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. In 1995, she converted to

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagre ...

from

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

. The relationship ended after the three years. According to Backer, she and Khan were planning to get married and move to Skardu[ She does not wear a headscarf at all times but insists that "women who cover themselves are not discriminated against but respected." In May 2009 she published the book On 14 April 2006, she married the Moroccan television journalist Rachid Jaafar. She and Jaafar later divorced. Backer lives in London and works as a fine art consultant.

Publications

* ''From MTV to Mecca: How Islam Inspired My Life'', 2009; * ''Der Islam als Weg des Herzens: Warum ich Muslima bin'', 2010;

References

External links

* * * *
"Der Islam ist sehr zugänglich"
interview with the ''Islamische Zeitung''
Kristiane Backer
on the ''Matters of Faith'' website
Kristiane Backer, from MTV to Mecca
{{DEFAULTSORT:Backer, Kristiane 1965 births Living people Writers from Hamburg German television journalists German former Christians German Muslims Converts to Islam from Protestantism VJs (media personalities) Press TV people German emigrants to England German television presenters German women television presenters German women television journalists