Muslim Yasmin makes history

MAKING history . . . Yasmin Toor

LOCAL ELECTIONS 2010

YASMIN Toor made political history when she became Oldham’s first female Asian Muslim to win a place in the council chamber.

The Labour representative for Medlock Vale vowed to fight for women and the community, and said: “It’s time for a female voice in Oldham, I hope to represent all women in Oldham.”

Yasmin retained the ward’s Labour seat after Jean Jones’s decision to step down as a councillor.

The wife of Councillor Ateeque Ur Rehman, who also represents Medlock Vale, she has been heavily involved in politics for many years.

“Obviously, more so since we married 10 years ago, but I was interested in politics long before that,” she said. A writer and a poet, Yasmin said: “I am really proud to be a positive role model for women. Hopefully it will encourage more women to come forward to take an interest in politics.”

She said her decision to stand at the election had encouraged local women to break away from the tradition of voting the way their men told them to, and instead casting a vote for their own choice.

“For me it was difficult because the community doesn’t expect Asian women in politics,” she said.

“There are a lot of people behind my success, but my husband has been my biggest supporter.

“There is a saying that behind every great man there is a great women, and my husband is the great man behind me.

“This is a chance for me to make a difference.”

Yasmin is a governor at St Thomas’s Primary School and chairman of the creative writing group “SEEP Women’s Forum.”

She works for NHS Tameside and Glossop in the language and patient support team.

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