Happy in a hijab or high heels, a very British Muslim is missing
By Liz Chong and Rajeev Syal
HER family says that she embodies multicultural London in so many ways: a beautiful Muslim woman, as comfortable in high heels and jeans as a traditional shalwar kameez.
Now the family of Shahera Akther Islam, 20, fear that she has been murdered in the name of the religion that she loved by terrorists determined to destroy her very British way of life.
With more than 50 other people, Ms Islam is now missing, feared dead. Nazmal Hasan, her uncle, told The Times yesterday that they were desperate to find Ms Islam, who was such a vibrant part of their lives.
“She enjoyed fashion, loved to shop in the West End and would usually carry her Gucci or Burberry handbags. But she was also a practising Muslim. She lives her life to the full,” he said. She defies many of the stereotypes of a Muslim woman, he said, by refusing to be demure and always speaking her mind.
“Anyone and everyone who knows her falls in love with her because she is such a bubbly person,” said Mr Hasan, a trainee actuary. The fact that she may have been murdered by people acting in the name of Islam has devastated Shamsul and Romena Islam, her devout parents, he said....
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Ms Islam, from Plaistow, East London, has always been proud to call herself a real East Ender. She was born at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel. She would occasionally wear the traditional hijab, or headscarf, for visits to the East London Mosque in Whitechapel. Like thousands of other Londoners, Ms Islam, the eldest of three children, left her family home on Thursday morning with plans of taking her usual journey to Islington, North London, where she works as a bank clerk....
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1686687,00.html