Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh

OBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

WS NP (born 5 October 1970) is a Scottish politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for

Ochil and South Perthshire Ochil and South Perthshire is a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of election. The constituency was created for the 2 ...

from 2015 to 2017. A former member of the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...

(SNP), Ahmed-Sheikh served as Trade and Investment spokesperson, Deputy Shadow Leader of the House in the House of Commons, and the SNP's National Women's and Equalities Convener. A solicitor and businessperson, and a former actress, Ahmed-Sheikh founded and formerly chaired the Scottish Asian Women's Association. After losing her parliamentary seat, Ahmed-Sheikh started working at RT UK on ''

The Alex Salmond Show ''The Alex Salmond Show'' is a UK weekly political talk show hosted by former First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, which premiered on RT on 16 November 2017. The guests have included various political and public figures. The show airs e ...

''. In March 2021 she defected from the SNP to the Alba Party and then stood as Alba's top list candidate in Central Scotland at the

2021 Scottish Parliament election The 2021 Scottish Parliament election took place on 6 May 2021, under the provisions of the Scotland Act 1998. All 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament were elected in the sixth election since the parliament was re-established in 1999. The ele ...

, but neither she nor her party succeeded in gaining a seat.

Early life and education

Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh was born in Chelsea, London in 1970, and raised in Edinburgh. Her mother is a half-Welsh, half-Czech actress who performed with the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...

and completed a law degree in her retirement. Her father, Mohammad bin Ashiq Rizvi, MA, LL.B, JP, was born in British India but brought up in Pakistan after Partition. He moved to Britain in 1962, working first as a lecturer in English at the University of London and then as an insurance broker. He was a Conservative politician, serving as councillor on the New Town/Stockbridge division on Lothian Regional Council from 1986 to 1994 and standing for Edinburgh Leith in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

. "He was the first Asian Conservative councillor in Scotland, he is the first of his ethnic group to be adopted as a Tory prospective parliamentary candidate and ..he is the only Asian chosen by any party in Scotland for this particular General Election." Ahmed-Sheikh was educated at Craigmount High School, George Heriot's School in Edinburgh, the University of Edinburgh ( MA) and the University of Strathclyde (LLB & Postgraduate Diploma in Law). She has a sister who is a London-based barrister.

Acting career

After graduating in law, Ahmed-Sheikh made acting her first career. She starred in the Pakistani drama series ''Des Pardes''. These led to a series of local modelling shoots. She starred in the 2000 drama '' Aansoo'', playing Imaan, the daughter of a mixed-race Scottish-Pakistani couple; the drama was filmed in both countries and was produced by her husband Zulfikar Sheikh. She produced and appeared in '' The Castle: Aik Umeed'' (2001).

Legal career

Ahmed-Sheikh decided on a second career in law. She became a partner at the Glasgow law firm Hamilton Burns, specialising in commercial conveyancing and private client work, often with a family law or immigration element. On 15 January 2019, she was found guilty of professional misconduct by the Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal (SSDT) and fined £3,000. The Tribunal found that Ahmed-Sheikh and fellow solicitor Alan Mickel had shown "disregard for the rules" in running a trust and had a conflict of interest when they borrowed money from it to help their ailing firm. In addition to their fines, the pair also had to pay the expenses of the Law Society of Scotland, which had brought the case forward. In September 2021, the SSDT found her guilty for a second time when she was ruled to have committed "recklessness by omission" during her tenure as the designated cashroom partner at Hamilton Burns, which went into administration in 2017. Ahmed-Sheikh admitted six other breaches of financial rules too but was cleared of any suggestion of dishonesty or a lack of integrity.

Political career

Ahmed-Sheikh was active in the Scottish Conservatives from the age of 10 and a member from 16. She was chairperson of Edinburgh Central Young Conservatives and deputy spokeswoman for the party on women and family issues and equal opportunities. She stood as the party's candidate in Glasgow Govan in the

1999 Scottish Parliament election The first election to the devolved Scottish Parliament, to fill 129 seats, took place on 6 May 1999. Following the election, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats formed the Scottish Executive, with Labour Member of the Scottish Parliam ...

, where she came in third place with 2,343 votes (8.88%). While a Conservative party member she criticised Alex Salmond as "hopelessly out of his depth" and "utterly naive" for his comments condemning NATO's intervention in Kosovo. In 2000, she resigned from the Conservatives in response to William Hague's "right wing" pronouncements on asylum seekers. She briefly joined the Labour Party before declaring that she would join the

, and was welcomed as a 'defector'. "I am not an opportunist, I have changed political parties - so what?", Ahmed-Sheikh said at the time. Salmond said he was "glad she had joined the party". In July 2012, she joined the Advisory Board of Yes Scotland, the cross-party campaign for

Scottish independence Scottish independence ( gd, Neo-eisimeileachd na h-Alba; sco, Scots unthirldom) is the idea of Scotland as a sovereign state, independent from the United Kingdom, and refers to the political movement that is campaigning to bring it about. S ...

ahead of the upcoming referendum. In May 2014 she was the third candidate on the SNP's list for the European Parliament election, but did not win a seat. In the 2015 general election, Ahmed-Sheikh was elected to the UK Parliament in the

constituency, earning 46% of the vote as the SNP took the seat from Labour incumbent Gordon Banks. She was Scotland's first female Muslim MP. However she lost the seat at the following

2017 general election This national electoral calendar for 2017 lists the national/federal elections held in 2017 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included. January *5 November ...

to Luke Graham of the Conservative Party. During that election campaign, financial allegations emerged, regarding her time as a solicitor; calls were made for her to be suspended from the SNP, but leader

Nicola Sturgeon Nicola Ferguson Sturgeon (born 19 July 1970) is a Scottish politician serving as First Minister of Scotland and Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) since 2014. She is the first woman to hold either position. She has been a member of ...

stood by her. In 2019, it was reported the SNP declined her application to stand in the upcoming European Parliament election of that year. On 31 March 2021, she was unveiled as a candidate for the Alba Party in the

, and stood for the party in Central Scotland. She was unsuccessful, as were all the other Alba candidates in the election. Ahmed-Sheikh's political position is described to be centre-right. She supports Scottish republicanism.

Charity work

Ahmed-Sheikh founded and chaired the Scottish Asian Women's Association. It launched on 19 April 2012 at

Stirling Castle Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most important castles in Scotland, both historically and architecturally. The castle sits atop Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological ...

, with the Scottish government supporting this event, to the equivalent of around £16,000. Ahmed-Sheikh resigned as a trustee of SAWA after her election as an MP in 2015. In January 2016, '' The Herald'' reported that during the period Ahmed-Sheikh was chair, only a small proportion (3%) of the SAWA's income had been donated to charitable causes. The charity was wound up in 2018. She was involved with British Muslim Awards from its inception, presenting the awards at the inaugural ceremony in 2013 and in 2014. She is a trustee of Scottish Women in Sport, a charity founded in 2013.

Awards and honours

She was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) in the

2014 New Year Honours The New Year Honours 2014 were appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebrati ...

for services to business and to the Asian community in Scotland.

Media work

Ahmed-Sheikh is co-owner, along with Alex Salmond, of Slainte Media, a production company behind ''

'', and regularly co-hosts the programme on RT.Nicola Sturgeon questions Alex Salmond's choice of Russian TV channel
BBC News, 10 November 201
Archived
from the original on 11 November 2017; Retrieved 11 November 2017

Personal life

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

, Ahmed-Sheikh married Zulfiqar Sheikh in 1991 and they have four children—Elysée, Saif, Shansee and Vaneesee. She speaks English, French and Urdu.

References

External links

*
Biography - Tasmina Ahmed Sheikh
Scottish National Party (Archived)
Tasmina Ahmed Sheikh's Westminister Maiden Speech
YouTube, 6 June 2015 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ahmed-Sheikh, Tasmina 1970 births Living people 21st-century Scottish women politicians 21st-century Scottish politicians Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of Strathclyde British politicians of Pakistani descent English people of Czech descent English people of Pakistani descent English people of Welsh descent Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Scottish constituencies Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Craigmount High School People educated at George Heriot's School Scottish Conservative Party politicians Scottish Muslims Scottish National Party MPs Scottish people of Czech descent Scottish people of Pakistani descent Scottish people of Welsh descent Scottish solicitors UK MPs 2015–2017 Scottish television presenters Scottish women television presenters RT (TV network) people Alba Party politicians