Background
Siddiqui was born in Karachi, Pakistan. Her father was a psychiatrist and moved to England to carry out post-graduate work in Cambridge.
department chairman religious studies educator
Siddiqui was born in Karachi, Pakistan. Her father was a psychiatrist and moved to England to carry out post-graduate work in Cambridge.
Bachelor in Arabic and French with honors, Leeds University, England, 1985. Master of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies, Manchester University, England, 1987. Doctor of Philosophy in Islamic Classical Laws, Manchester University, England, 1991.
Doctor of Letters (honorary), Wolverhampton University, England, 2002.
She is Professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies at the University of Edinburgh. She is also a regular contributor to Thought for the Day and Sunday on British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4, and to The Times, The Scotsman, The Guardian, Sunday Herald. The family moved from Pakistan to England in 1968.
His work eventually took the family to Huddersfield when he gained a substantive job.
They lived in four successive houses in Huddersfield, moving partly because the family expanded from four to six, and finally into a 1930s detached house in a relatively prosperous area near the town centre. The household was very literary and there were many books in the house.
Urdu was generally spoken at home, and so the children became bilingual. She later moved to Greenhead College.
Siddiqui took her Bachelor of Arts in Arabic and French at the University of Leeds (graduating in 1984), and her Master of Arts in Middle-Eastern Studies and Doctor of Philosophy in Classical Islamic Law at the University of Manchester (graduating in 1986 and 1992 respectively).
She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in March 2005 and of the Royal Society of Arts in October 2005. She also holds an Honorary Doctor of Literature from the University of Wolverhampton and the University of Leicester. In addition she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Civil Laws from the University of Huddersfield.
In 2006, she was appointed Professor of Islamic Studies and Public Understanding, and served as a Senate Assessor on the University Court.
Her areas of specialism are classical Islamic law, law and gender, early Islamic thought, and contemporary legal and ethical issues in Islam. She is currently working on two further monographs with Yale Uttar Pradesh and IB Tauris.
Siddiqui was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in the 2011 Birthday Honours for services to inter-faith relations.
And is a member of the Commission on Scottish Devolution. She served as a member of the Advisory Boards for Glasgow’s Gallery of Modern Art, Scottish Asian Arts, IB Tauris Religious Studies project and the Journal of the American Academy of Religion.
Married Siddiqui Farhaj. Children: Suhaib, Zuhayr, Fayz.
