Advisory Board Biographies
Navita Atreya
Navita Atreya is a human rights lawyer specialising in asylum and immigration law. She has appeared extensively before immigration judges both at first instance and appeal in asylum, human rights and Immigration cases as well as judicial review cases. Navita has dealt with numerous entry clearance appeals before immigration judges and has an interest in business immigration and European law. She also specialises in trafficking cases and cases involving sexual violence and sits as a part time judge. Navita is also a qualified mediator and committed to social justice.
Meena Patel
Meena Patel is an immigration services and domestic abuse project co-ordinator for the organisation Asylum Welcome which provides support to refugees and asylum seekers in Oxford. As an OISC level 2 qualified advisor, she co-ordinates immigration advice services with a range of partners in the Thames Valley area in order to provide high quality immigration advice to those who are unable to access legal aid. In addition, she co-ordinates a team of 14 volunteers to provide direct assistance to clients who have insecure immigration status, many of whom are under threat of deportation. She is also developing a more holistic domestic violence service for refugee and asylum-seeking women in the area. Meena previously worked for 35 years at Southall Black Sisters (SBS) where she undertook a variety of roles that made a significant and award-winning contribution to its milestone cases and campaigns as well as its overall development. Meena is also a management board member of the Angelou Centre.
Dania Thomas
My name is Dania Thomas, pronouns she/her. I am a first-generation migrant, mother of two, born in Gujarat, India and have lived and worked in the UK for 23 years. I hold a PhD in law and currently work full time in the University of Glasgow as a lecturer in business law. My research interests include racial capitalism, the black radical tradition and financial law. I am a founder member and currently a volunteer-director of the Ubuntu Women Shelter, Glasgow https://www.ubuntu-glasgow.org.uk/. Just to make my life more complicated but infinitely more interesting I am also a trustee in Sangini, a women's arts group in Sunderland https://www.sangini.co.uk/ and a trustee of the Playwright Studio, Scotland https://playwrightsstudio.co.uk/. I was the first Asian woman to be elected as the branch president of my local union UCU, Glasgow in 2021. In my life of 57 years my guiding truth has been June Jordan’s work. Here is an excerpt from her Poem for South African women.
“And who will join this standing up/and the ones who stood without sweet company/will sing and sing/back into the mountains and/if necessary/even under the sea: we are the ones we have been waiting for.”
Jasmine Mohammad
Jasmine Mohammed is the Director of Safety4Sisters, a specialist Black and minoritised by and for women’s organisation based in Manchester. Safety4Sisters is dedicated to upholding the rights of Black and minoritised migrant women with no resource to public funds, who have experienced a spectrum of gendered violence and face multiple forms of oppression and discrimination. Prior to this role, Jasmine worked as the VAWG Services Manager at the Angelou Centre, a specialist by and for service in Newcastle. Jasmine is also the chair and co-chair of two specialist by and for northern women’s organisations: Ubuntu Women’s Shelter and Humraaz.
Yasmin Rehman
Yasmin Rehman is a feminist, human rights activist and researcher. She is the currently the CEO of Juno Women’s Aid in Nottingham/South Nottinghamshire. In addition to her day job, Yasmin is often called as an expert witness in legal cases providing expert reports on faith-based abuse, honour-based abuse, forced marriage and polygamy. Yasmin has worked for more than 30 years in the area of violence against women and girls, race, faith and gender, and human rights. She co-edited a book, Moving in the Shadows: Violence in the Lives of Minority Women and Children, contributing two chapters on faith based abuse and polygamy. She is working on a second book examining polygamous and temporary marriages. Yasmin is currently an Honorary Researcher at the University of Kent and a member of the editorial board of Feminist Dissent. Yasmin has also been a board member of a number of organisations and was awarded the Irwin Prize for Secularist of the Year in 2017.
Umme Imam
Umme Imam is the former executive director of the Angelou Centre, a black feminist organisation that has promoted economic independence for Black and minoritised women in the North East for thirty years. The organisation is nationally recognised for providing holistic support and advocacy to women and children survivors of domestic and sexual abuse. Umme has extensive experience in community development work, especially in relation to domestic violence, in India (where she was born and educated) and in the UK. For the last forty years, she has been active in the development and management of a range of voluntary projects for Black and minoritised women as well as ensuring their strategic representation locally and nationally. Umme also held the post of lecturer in Community and Youth Work at Durham University (1993-2005) and has published a series of articles about domestic violence on South Asian women and children. She has also been in the forefront of setting up refuge accommodation for Black and minoritised women in Newcastle and the North East. In 2019, Umme was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Civil Law degree by Newcastle University in recognition of her contribution to the issues of race and gender.