'Britain's AOC', the young Muslim woman trying to unseat Iain Duncan Smith

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“There wasn't a time that I didn't know who Nelson Mandela was,” she says. “My dad used to make us watch interviews of Muhammad Ali and made sure he gave us anti-racist legends to look up to.”

Faiza Shaheen hasn’t had a day off in a very, very long time. In fact, when I ask her when she last had a day to herself, the election candidate pauses for about 10 seconds. “I think… It was when I went on holiday in March last year,” she finally answers, before remembering that she attended a friend’s wedding six months ago. “I never do things half-hearted!”

When I arrive on a rainy November Saturday afternoon to meet the candidate in her constituency, Woodford Memorial Hall is overflowing with volunteers. There has already been a morning canvas session, meaning around 750 people have turned up, matching the total for the previous weekend in just one day. “People know that it’s a really close race here,” Faiza tells me.

The supporters behind Faiza's people-powered campaign are united in their belief that a voice like hers belongs in parliament. Born in East London to a working-class Pakistani mother and Fijian father, the contrast with her sports car-driving, millionaire opponent is clear.

It was Shaheen’s time at Oxford University which politicised her, opening her eyes to the class warfare that had long been waged against working people, keeping them locked out of elite spaces. “People would sneer my accent and look down on my friends who visited from Chingford,” she says. “One guy even said ‘Oh, so you’reof people we're trying to get rid of!’" The educational material at Oxford clashed with her lived experience.

 

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