Samira Ahmed

Samira Ahmed is an awardwinning journalist and broadcaster. Until recently she was a presenter and correspondent at Channel 4 News and now presents BBC Radio 4 news programmes. She won the Stonewall Broadcaster of the Year award 2009 for her report about "corrective" rape in South Africa, made the Channel 4 documentary series "Islam Unveiled" about the status of Muslim women round the world. She has also presented Radio 4's religion and ethics programme, "Sunday" and writes and broadcasts with a special interest in culture, politics and education, for The Spectator, The Guardian and The Independent and BBC2's The Review Show. Her natural competitive streak found an outlet when she won Celebrity Mastermind in 2010.

Samira is presenting and reporting for the BBC Proms season in 2011. 

Samira read English at St Edmund Hall, Oxford University and started her career as a BBC News Trainee. She's been a reporter on Radio 4's Today programme and Newsnight, where she uncovered a major charity scandal and was one of the first journalists to investigate the emergence of radical Islam at British universities.

She speaks German and Hindi/Urdu.

Samira's experience as a conference chair, interviewer and professional moderator include cultural discussions with actors and directors for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the British Film Institute, and also work for the United Nations, and several UK government departments, including The Home Office, the Department for International Development and the Cabinet Office.She has presented the Civil Service awards since their inception 5 years ago, most recently at Buckingham Palace.

Born and brought up in London, where she lives, Samira is involved in a number of charities including the deafblind charity, Sense, the Fawcett Society which campaigns on women's equality and she is patron of 2 London charities - the Hopscotch Asian Women's Centre in Camden and the Kiran women's refuge in Leytonstone.

She gives school talks and lectures regularly on journalism at a number of universities, which have included the London School of Economics, London Metropolitan University and Berlin Brandenburg University.

Her website is www.samiraahmed.co.uk

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• ACCOLADES:
  
  
  Prevent Conference, Office for Security & Counter-Terrorism, Dec 2009
  “From start to end I thought you added so much to the event. The Q&A in the morning was particularly excellent and I have had feedback from delegates and colleagues here that they really appreciated how genuine and challenging the session felt. I was so impressed at how quickly you picked up on all the nuances and challenges of the agenda. Your insight was a valuable contribution to the day. I loved working with you – both from a professional and personal angle and I really hope we get the chance to again in the future”
  
  
• Eurofound, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living & Working Conditions, Nov 2009 “You played a blinder (as we say) with the debate. It was far and away the best one we have had in all four events.”  
  
   
• Charity Conference, London June 2010 "A huge thank you for your excellent contribution to our conference. We had some really positive comments back from delegates - especially with regard to the panel session which was particularly well received. You did an absolutely fantastic job as chair"