Faiza Shaheen (born 1982/1983) is a British academic and economist in the field of economic inequality. In 2018, and again in 2022, she was selected to be the prospective parliamentary candidate for Labour for Chingford and Woodford Green. In 2023, her first book, Know Your Place, was published.
Faiza Shaheen | |
---|---|
Born | 1982 or 1983 (age 41–42)[1] |
Education | Chingford Church of England Primary School Chingford Foundation School Sir George Monoux College |
Alma mater | St John's College, Oxford University of Manchester |
Political party | Labour |
Spouse | Akin Gazi |
Children | 1 |
Website | Faiza Shaheen |
Shaheen was born in Whipps Cross University Hospital, Leytonstone,[2] and grew up in Chingford, in East London.[3] Her father was a car mechanic originally from Fiji and her mother was a laboratory technician from Pakistan, where they met.[1][4][5] She has a brother and a sister.[5]
She attended Chingford Church of England Primary School,[6] Chingford Foundation School and Sir George Monoux College.[7] Her first job was at Greggs the bakers in Chingford Mount.[2] After reading philosophy, politics and economics at St John's College, Oxford University,[4] Shaheen studied at the University of Manchester, being awarded an MSc in Research Methods & Statistics and a PhD.[8]
Shaheen first worked at the Centre for Urban Policy Studies, University of Manchester. In 2007, she joined the urban policy research charity, Centre for Cities.[9] In 2009, she became senior researcher on economic inequality at the New Economics Foundation.
In 2014, she was appointed head of Inequality and Sustainable Development at the charity Save the Children UK.[8] From 2016, she was director of the Centre for Labour and Social Studies (CLASS), a policy think tank originating from the trade union movement.[10][11][12]
From 2021-23, Shaheen was the Inequality and Exclusion Program Director at the Center on International Cooperation, New York University. She is a visiting professor in practice at the International Inequalities Institute of the London School of Economics where she teaches the Masters course on inequality.[13][14][12]
Shaheen is a regular contributor to debates on television news programmes, including Newsnight and Channel 4 News, and has worked with Channel 4 and the BBC to develop documentaries on inequality.[15][16] In 2021, she participated with Adam Rutherford in a discussion on inequality and racism on Al Jazeera English.[17]
In 2023, Shaheen's first book, Know Your Place, on social inequality in the UK, was published by Simon and Schuster. Shaheen wrote the book during evenings and weekends while working full-time at the LSE.[18][19]
Shaheen is a longtime Labour voter and says she has been politicised from an early age. She joined the Labour Party after Jeremy Corbyn became leader in 2015.[5] In 2017, The Guardian identified her as a "rising star"[1] and she was nominated for Woman of the Year at the Asian Achievers Awards and named one of the Top 100 Influencers on the Left by LBC broadcaster, [[Iain Dale.[20][21][22] According to one newspaper, she has been compared to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.[23]
Shaheen was selected to be the prospective parliamentary candidate for the Labour Party for Chingford and Woodford Green in July 2018.[24][4][25] She has stated that her motivation for standing was the stress her own and other families had suffered as a result of welfare reforms instituted by the constituency’s longstanding Conservative incumbent, Iain Duncan Smith,[4][26] during his time as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. In the 2019 general election, Shaheen increased Labour’s vote, contrary to the national trend, and garnered the party’s largest ever vote share in the constituency, but lost by a narrow margin.[27] In July 2022, Shaheen was selected to contest the seat again for the Labour Party at the next United Kingdom general election.[28]
Shaheen supports universal childcare, free school meals for primary school children, increased funding for the state education sector including investment in special needs provision and child mental health support, the abolition of university tuition fees, improved local transport links, and the restoration of neighbourhood policing with additional police officers and PCSO’s.[29] Shaheen has been vocal on the urgency of the need to rebuild the local Whipps Cross Hospital and to expand the NHS workforce to reduce waiting lists and improve provision.[29]
Shaheen advocates action on the climate crisis, supporting efforts to increase investment in greening the UK’s economy and boosting renewable energy.[29] She has been reported as thanking those who toppled the statue of Edward Colston, a 17th century slave trader in Bristol, during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests.[30] Shaheen has voiced her objection to the division sown by rightwing weaponisation of the white working class as a separate racial category, stating: "Since when did the working class become white? It's a mythology. It’s as if you’re not allowed to be working class if you’re brown or black... "[18]
Shaheen’s first book, Know Your Place, is part memoir, part polemic. Shaheen describes the work as “a personal and statistical look at how society and the economy are structured, what really defines your life chances and how our current system keeps us locked into an ugly hierarchy.” Supported by copious statistics, Shaheen delves into factors from inherited wealth to class, race, and education to argue that social mobility is “a fairytale” propagated by those with wealth and power as a means to protect their status and privilege.[7]
Shaheen is married to the actor Akin Gazi.[23] They have one son[31] and live in the Chingford and Woodford Green constituency.[32]