Pav Akhtar
Encyclopedia
Pav Akhtar is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
activist. Among his many and varied jobs he used to work for the trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
UNISON
UNISON
UNISON is the largest trade union in the United Kingdom with over 1.3 million members.The union was formed in 1993 when three public sector trade unions, the National and Local Government Officers Association , the National Union of Public Employees and the Confederation of Health Service...
and was councillor for Stockwell
Stockwell
Stockwell is a district in inner south west London, England, located in the London Borough of Lambeth.It is situated south south-east of Charing Cross. Brixton, Clapham, Vauxhall and Kennington all border Stockwell...
in the London Borough of Lambeth
London Borough of Lambeth
The London Borough of Lambeth is a London borough in south London, England and forms part of Inner London. The local authority is Lambeth London Borough Council.-Origins:...
. Along with Waheed Alli, Baron Alli
Waheed Alli, Baron Alli
Waheed Alli, Baron Alli is a British multimillionaire media entrepreneur and politician. He was co-founder and managing director of Planet 24, a TV production company, and managing director at Carlton Television Productions...
, he is one of very few out gay Muslim politicians in the world.
Akhtar studied for A-Levels at Runshaw College, Leyland
Runshaw College
Runshaw College is a further and higher education college based at three centres in Leyland and Chorley, Lancashire, England.-History:The college was founded in Leyland when the sixth forms of Parklands High School and Balshaw's CE High School were amalgamated in 1974 to make a sixth form college...
. He then attended Homerton College, Cambridge
Homerton College, Cambridge
Homerton College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England.With around 1,200 students, Homerton has more students than any other Cambridge college, although less than half of these live in the college. The college has a long and complex history dating back to the...
, during which time he became the first non-white president of the Cambridge University Students Union.
He then ran against Gemma Tumelty
Gemma Tumelty
Gemma Tumelty was the President of the National Union of Students of the United Kingdom until 2008. She was the NUS National Secretary for 2005 to 2006, and a member of its National Executive Committee for two years before that.-Early life:She comes from Aston Clinton in Buckinghamshire...
to be President of the National Union of Students, becoming the first Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
to run for this position, but lost, with contributing factors to the defeat allegedly being Islamophobia
Islamophobia
Islamophobia describes prejudice against, hatred or irrational fear of Islam or MuslimsThe term dates back to the late 1980s or early 1990s, but came into common usage after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States....
and homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
. After The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
newspaper reported that Akhtar is gay, some users of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee forum voiced their contempt towards him. Akhtar told PinkNews, “both Islamophobia and homophobia played a part in the election campaign.” He claims that some Muslim students were told, “don't vote for Pav, he's gay.” Although a member of the Labour Party, Akhtar was not a member of its student wing and ran for NUS President as an independent candidate.
Akhtar was re-elected as Black Members’ Officer for the Labour Campaign for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights, the Labour Party's national LGBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
executive, in May 2006 and the following month was re-elected as Black students’ rep for the NUS LGBT Campaign. He has served as chair of Imaan, a LGBT Muslim organisation.
He is of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i origin.