A poster reading "Vote Green Party" on the back of a chair

My name is Aasiya Bora and I’m a Green Party member from Leicester.

I’m a mum to two teens, I was a teacher of English and now am a project officer for a charity. This charity promotes walking and cycling, so it’s a privilege to have work which aligns with my environmental concerns. I teach cycling to children on weekdays and to women who’ve never learned to cycle on Saturday mornings.

My father worked as an imam, but spent so much time translating for the Mirpuri community in Sheffield when they visited the Citizens Advice Bureau that eventually the CAB said Mr. Bora you could work for us, which he did. Daddy was a raconteur of wonderful stories of travels and famously anti materialistic, welcoming money when it came but never seeking it, always preferring adventure when possible.

Mummy grew up in Tanzania, East Africa with a profound love for wildlife, green things, nature and frugality. From her I was schooled in an awareness of climate injustice and what exploitation looked like from a very early age. As she spoke with such sorrow of how Indians ( the people of my own heritage and background) treated black Tanzanians , I learned responsibility and the somehow the idea that these mistakes, this unfairness was ours now to rectify.

We were reasonably well informed about politics and current affairs and learned more of our politics from Any Questions Any Answers on Radio 4. The idea of being of service to others was always drilled into me but it wasn’t until 2012 or so that my political instincts just kicked in and I penned a long, upset and as angry letter to my local councillors about the poverty I was seeing amongst the children in schools in Leicester.

When Extinction Rebellion burst onto the scene, myself and young family as they were then, got involved almost straight away: this was creative, disruptive, heartfelt, intelligent critiquing and interrogation of our fossil fuel economy and culture which was hurtling us towards a 2°+ temperature rise.

And since 2021, I have stood as a GPEW candidate in Leicester for councillor, parliamentary and police crime commissioner positions. Leafletted, doorknocked and listened to hundreds of people.

In Leicester, I helped form Green Guardians, an environmental organisation which helps empowers the Muslim community to take more environmentally aware steps including initiatives like Plastic-Free Ramadan for local mosques.

Beyond the local scene, following on from work in XR Muslims, three friends and I co- founded Muslims Declare a Climate Emergency. We worked with Zero Hour to create a travelling exhibition of letters from the global south , describing the impact of the climate crisis in places ranging from Bangladesh to Morocco. That exhibition is still traveling around the UK in church halls, mosque foyers and community centres.

Whilst EDI isn’t my area of expertise, inshAllah I can grow into it. I hope to be the kind of person who embodies the mindset behind the principles of EDI.

I have been told by many different people with different experiences and options that politics is an arena where some cohort or other will be disappointed by you and to develop a thick skin in order to make tough decisions you stand by. I have always seen life in a more fluid way and politics is no different. To me, a mindset and culture of listening and absorbing opposing points of view and sitting with them rather than quick- fire reacting to them is essential. The middle ground most of us occupy is indeed a vast, nuanced and limitless area.

Yes there are nine protected characteristics, yet such an infinite number of permutations when you consider intersectionality and the gigantic unspoken problem of class and poverty.

We are challenged by two main parties who’ve outdone wash other when it comes to pitting communities and different groups against each other. We can and must be so much better than that to bring people closer to each other and to recognise the closeness, regardless of what laws ask of us. Let’s be the political party that, genuinely and thoroughly, leaves no one behind.

Aasiya Bora is standing as a job-share candidate with Debra Cooper for the Green Party’s equality and diversity coordinator 

Image credit: Jon Craig – Creative Commons