Unzela Sheikh

24/04/2026

So, as you all know we only speak to our kids in urdu even though we’re both 2nd/3rd generation British Pakistanis. Up until the age of 3 she would respond in English because of nursery BUT I never pushed her to respond in Urdu because until that age they get so frustrated if you don’t understand them lol. So now we’re at a point where as of the last few weeks I’ve been asking her to reply in Urdu or the conversation doesn’t really carry on 🤷🏽‍♀️

16/04/2026

Ingredients:

1. Chicken 700g
2. Nandos peri peri medium 30 minute marinade OR any peri peri marinade (half a bottle per 500g chicken)
3. Rice (1.5 cups)
4. Shan biriyani masala (3 tablespoons)

13/04/2026

Three big setbacks later - the result. Please tell me your thoughts, shall I dye it again? COZ I WILL. One more dye should get the perfect colour right????

03/11/2025

Plus so many said about the metal wire rack thing that I used at the end 🙏🏽

30/10/2025

It really is the simple things that make or break my day lol

06/08/2024

I think for UK Muslims and Brown/Black communities the newsroom has been exhausting the last few days.

As journalists from ethnic minority backgrounds - every single day can feel like a battle to get your voice across. I always say to aspiring journalists to stand your ground, ask the questions, argue your point well, be firm.

Those who aren’t journalists need to know how heavily our work is edited, our headlines are not chosen by us, (the writers). The words we write do not all end up in the published piece. The amount of debates I’ve had in newsrooms is mentally exhausting but my advice is don’t stay silent if you’re passionate about a certain story or angle or even word. Language matters.

They need to know we will fight it no matter what the outcome is. Even if it’s not in our favour, we still need to make it known what we stand for.

"It's disgusting to think that if we hide the dates, the racist attacks of the 70s and 80s could easily be incidents of 2024."

31/10/2023

This woman is stuck in the UK while her family suffer in Gaza - she waits every second for any news about her husband and parents - so far at least 130 people she knows have died

'In Gaza, there are two types of people, the families that stick together so they can die together - or the families that split up so there is less of a chance of each member dying. I am from the first kind of family'

11/10/2023

"Israel is sending a message - you don't deserve to live and collective punishment means collective death. We can't live in a world like that”

'Israel is sending a message - you don't deserve to live and collective punishment means collective death. We can't live in a world like that'

16/08/2022

"Before the 1947 partition of India, my father's family were all on the Bangladesh side of the border, we're Bangladeshi Hindus. They were forced to move everything from Bangladesh to the Indian side of Calcutta"

Dr Dev Rup Maitra says without partition he would have led the life of a landowner and wouldn't have experienced what it's like to be brown in the UK