Difference between revisions of "Saleyha Ahsan"

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(A friend and colleague of Dr Rola - an interesting and active life by all accounts.)
 
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Dr Saleyha Ahsan is a freelance reporter and film maker and A&E doctor who has traveled to conflict zones in North Africa and Asia and made films and news reports including Libya, Syria, Bosnia, Palestine, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. She appeared in a contravertial 2013 video in Syria with the "[[Dr Rola]]" who featured prominently on the BBC's Panorama calling for bombings of the Syrian government.
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{{Person
 +
|description=A freelance reporter, film maker and A&E doctor with a Sandhurst background. She has traveled to conflict zones in North Africa and Asia and made films and news reports including Libya, Syria, Bosnia, Palestine, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. She appeared with "Dr Rola" in the controversial 2013 video shown on the BBC's Panorama news programme calling for humanitarian bombings of Syria.
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|linkedin=https://uk.linkedin.com/pub/saleyha-ahsan/15/712/538
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|instagram=https://www.instagram.com/saleyhaahsan/
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|facebook=https://www.facebook.com/saleyha.ahsan
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|interests=UK/Secret trials, COVID-19
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|wikipedia=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saleyha_Ahsan
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|nationality=UK
 +
|companieshouse=https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/officers/ZboDFhRPFfEbQufKjhjyr2XM9Wc/appointments
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|constitutes=journalist, doctor, filmmaker, soldier, spook?
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|imdb=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm6514343/
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|image=Saleyha Ahsan.jpg
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|birth_place= Barking, Essex, UK
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|birth_date=December 1970
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|twitter=https://twitter.com/SaleyhaAhsan
 +
|alma_mater=Sandhurst, University of Dundee
 +
|WS_username=User:Saleyha
 +
}}
 +
'''Dr Saleyha Ahsan''' is a UK born [[doctor]] cum [[journalist]], a [[Sandhurst]] alumna, with a [[spook]]y profile. She has been active in warzones including [[Bosnia]],  [[Libya]] and [[Syria]]. In a (rejected) appeal to the [[BBC]], [[Robert Stuart]] opined that she had evidenced a "chilling attitude towards children and armed conflict".<ref>https://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/2015/04/29/complaint-dr-saleyha-ahsan-the-truth-about-fat-bbc-one-2-april-2015/</ref>
  
 
==Background==
 
==Background==
Although British, Saleyha Ahsan has stated that "my roots are in Pakistan and Afghanistan."<ref name="BBC2011">[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14186310 BBC: The road to recovery inside Libya's mountain hospital]</ref> She was the first Muslim woman to graduate from [[Sandhurst]] as a British Army Officer.<ref name="100women">http://oneworldaction.wordpress.com/100-unseen-powerful-women/arts-and-media/saleyha-ahsan/</ref> She joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and led her troop on a peace keeping mission in Bosnia.
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Saleyha Ahsan was born a UK citizen in Essex<ref>http://thelondonstoryteller.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/hello-world/</ref>, but has stated that "my roots are in [[Pakistan]] and [[Afghanistan]]."<ref name="BBC2011">[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14186310 BBC: The road to recovery inside Libya's mountain hospital]</ref>  
 
+
She writes that her best career move was "Gaining a place at the [[Royal Military Academy Sandhurst]] for officer training".<ref>https://www.bmj.com/content/360/bmj.k932</ref>, from which she was the first Muslim woman to graduate as a British Army Officer.<ref name="100women">http://oneworldaction.wordpress.com/100-unseen-powerful-women/arts-and-media/saleyha-ahsan/</ref> Ahsan joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and led her troop on a peace keeping mission in [[Bosnia]] where she reports that a Brigadier Dr [[Kevin Beaton]] "was my squadron commander in Bosnia and inspired me to study medicine".<ref>https://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/hospex-macro-simulation-techniques/</ref>. From 2001 to 2006 she studied Medicine at the [[University of Dundee]], gaining an MBChB<ref name="linkedin">[http://www.linkedin.com/pub/saleyha-ahsan/15/712/538 Linked In Profile]</ref>. While studying medicine she was awarded scholarships and awards and developed her career as a [[filmmaker]]. She continues to work as an A&E doctor.
From 2001 to 2006 Ahsan studied Medicine at the University of Dundee, gaining an MBChB<ref name="linkedin">[http://www.linkedin.com/pub/saleyha-ahsan/15/712/538 Linked In Profile]</ref>. While studying medicine she was awarded scholarships and awards and developed her career as a film maker. She continues to work as an A&E doctor.
 
  
 
==Journalism==
 
==Journalism==
 
+
[[image:Saleyha Ahsan on COVID19.png|Saleyha Ahsan on [[COVID-19]]|left|300px]]
Specialising in reports of suffering from war zones, Ahsan has had a remarkable career as a journalist, producing films for a variety of different UK TV and radio programmes, national newspapers and journals. She is a columnist for the Guardian.<ref name="Guardian">[http://www.theguardian.com/profile/saleyha-ahsan Guardian profile page]</ref> and has written for the Lancet and the New Internationalist.<ref name="knightayton">[http://knightayton.co.uk/female-presenters/saleyha-ahsan Knight Ayton profile page]</ref>. She works for [[Knight Ayton]] as a "news and current affairs presenter".
+
Specialising in reports of suffering from war zones, Ahsan has had a remarkable career as a journalist, producing films for a variety of different UK TV and radio programmes, national newspapers and journals. She is a columnist for the ''[[Guardian]]''.<ref name="Guardian">[http://www.theguardian.com/profile/saleyha-ahsan Guardian profile page]</ref> and has written for the ''[[Lancet]]'', ''[[The Independent]]''<ref>https://www.independent.co.uk/author/saleyha-ahsan</ref> and the ''[[New Internationalist]]''.<ref name="knightayton">[http://knightayton.co.uk/female-presenters/saleyha-ahsan Knight Ayton profile page]</ref>. She works for [[Knight Ayton]] as a "news and current affairs presenter". In 2014, she narrated "How did [[WW1]] change the way we treat war injuries today?" for the [[BBC]].<ref>[http://a.files.bbci.co.uk/bam/live/content/ztr7fg8/transcript Transcript] of "How did WW1 change the way we treat war injuries today?", [[BBC]], February 2014</ref>
  
 
===Bosnia===
 
===Bosnia===
In 2003 Saleyha went back to Bosnia where she had served with the Army, to film "for a charity supporting conflict recovery".<ref name="Tiburon">http://www.tiburonfilmfestival.com/contactInfo.php?contact_id=12785</ref>
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In 2003 Saleyha went back to [[Bosnia]] where she had served with the Army, to film "for a charity supporting conflict recovery".<ref name="Tiburon">http://www.tiburonfilmfestival.com/contactInfo.php?contact_id=12785</ref>
  
 
===Libya===
 
===Libya===
Ahsan herself reported that "It was by some bizarre fluke that returning home from that first short trip that I sat next to Nader Elhamessi, a Libyan, a Londoner for many years and one of the founders of the aid organization [[World for Libya]]".<ref name="latitude">http://www.latitudenews.com/story/on-the-medical-frontline-of-libyas-uprising-day-one/</ref>
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Ahsan herself reported that "It was by some bizarre fluke that returning home from that first short trip that I sat next to [[Nader Elhamessi]], a [[Libya]]n, a Londoner for many years and one of the founders of the aid organization [[World for Libya]]".<ref name="latitude">http://www.latitudenews.com/story/on-the-medical-frontline-of-libyas-uprising-day-one/</ref>
She spent six months "independently filming doctors on the frontline" and producing reports which were aired by BBC online, BBC’s From Our Own Correspondent, Channel 4 News online, the BMJ online and Latitude News. Ahsan is quoted as stating that she "found on (sic.) organisation online called Global Relief Libya - doctors organising themselves and getting involved".<ref name="BBC2011"/>
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She spent six months "independently filming doctors on the frontline" and producing reports which were aired by BBC online, BBC’s From Our Own Correspondent, Channel 4 News online, the BMJ online and Latitude News. Ahsan is quoted as stating that she "found on (sic.) organisation online called Global Relief Libya - doctors organising themselves and getting involved".<ref name="BBC2011"/>|
  
 
===Syria===
 
===Syria===
{{FA|Dr Rola}}
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Apparent coincidence also took Dr Ahsan to [[Syria]]; at a [[Royal Society of Medicine]] event in London early in 2012 she reportedly first met [[Dr Rola]]<ref>http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity/saleyha-ahsan/medicine-as-weapon-of-war-in-syria</ref> whose charity, [[Hand in Hand for Syria]], invited her to Syria in December of that year.<ref name="DFID">[http://blogs.dfid.gov.uk/2013/11/saving-syrias-children/ Saving Syria's Children] - DFID Guest Blog</ref> The BBC reported in 2016 that Ahsan had "helped raise more than £180,000 to build a children's hospital on the outskirts of embattled Syrian city, Aleppo".<ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-38358527</ref>
Dr Ahsan reports that she went to Syria in December 2012, a guest of [[Hand in Hand for Syria]].<ref name="DFID">[http://blogs.dfid.gov.uk/2013/11/saving-syrias-children/ Saving Syria's Children] - DFID Guest Blog</ref> In 2013 she features in a video with [[Dr Rola]] in Syria which was shown on [[BBC]]'s Panorama in the run up to the vote on whether to bomb Syria. On the 6th of November, 2013, she posted a story as a guest blogger on the UK DFID website entitled ''Saving Syria's children'' which stated that she witnessed the alleged Aleppo school 'napalm' attack of 26th August, 2013 and expanding very slightly on the information disclosed about it hitherto.<ref name="DFID"/> On 21 September 2013, she published a piece in the Guardian headlined "Healthcare workers in Syria need international protection - The Assad regime still poses a significant risk to civilians, doctors, the injured and those seeking medical attention".
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 +
====Saving Syria's Children‎‎ ====
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{{FA|Saving Syria's Children‎‎}}
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[[image:Saving Syria's Children.jpg|left|300px]]
 +
Dr Ahsan featured in a controversial 2013 video with [[Dr Rola]] which was shown on the [[BBC]] in the run up to a UK parliamentary vote on whether to bomb Syria. On the 4th of September, 2013, she published an article stating that she witnessed the Dr Rola Aleppo school 'napalm' attack of ''27''th August, 2013.<ref>[http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2013/09/04/triage_and_terror_doctors_hospitals_syria Triage and Terror]</ref> On the 6th of November, 2013, she posted a story as a guest blogger on the UK DFID website entitled ''[[Saving Syria's children]]'' which changed the date to ''26''th August, and expanded very slightly on the information disclosed about it hitherto.<ref name="DFID"/> [[Robert Stuart]] has highlighted various contradictory statements about the purported attack.
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[[image:Saleyha Ahsan Saving Syria's Children contradictions napalm date.jpg|right|400px]|thumbnail|image credit:[[Robert Stuart]]<ref>https://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/2016/03/26/dr-saleyha-ahsan-contradictions-in-accounts-of-alleged-incendiary-bomb-attack/</ref>]]
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[[image:Saleyha Ahsan Saving Syria's Children contradictions beginning.jpg|right|400px]|thumbnail|image credit:[[Robert Stuart]]<ref>https://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/2016/03/26/dr-saleyha-ahsan-contradictions-in-accounts-of-alleged-incendiary-bomb-attack/</ref>]]
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[[image:Saleyha Ahsan Saving Syria's Children contradictions baby's alleged burns.jpg|right|400px]|thumbnail|image credit:[[Robert Stuart]]<ref>https://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/2016/03/26/dr-saleyha-ahsan-contradictions-in-accounts-of-alleged-incendiary-bomb-attack/</ref>]]
  
 
==Productions==
 
==Productions==
Even while otherwise employed, such as while studying medicine, Ahsan has been remarkably successful at continuing to produce films.
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Ahsan has appeared on a variety of shows including ''[[Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls]]''. Even while otherwise employed, such as while studying medicine, she has been remarkably successful at continuing to produce films and getting them broadcast by the [[BBC]].
  
 
===2001 - Dangerous Journeys===
 
===2001 - Dangerous Journeys===
Ahsan's Linked-In page reports that in 2001 she successfully pitched an idea to [[Channel 4]] to travel to India and Pakistan and spend 5 weeks there<ref name="linkedin"/> recording interviews with the Kashmiri Mujahideen. "After gaining exclusive access just weeks after 9/11" she presented a BBC5 Live special report from a Mujahideen training camp in Kashmir<ref name="knightayton"/>  and produced ''Dangerous Journeys'' (by Chameleon Films).
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Ahsan's [[Linkedin]] page reports that in 2001 she successfully pitched an idea to [[Channel 4]] to travel to [[India]] and [[Pakistan]] and spend 5 weeks there<ref name="linkedin"/> recording interviews with the Kashmiri Mujahideen. "After gaining exclusive access just weeks after 9/11" she presented a BBC5 Live special report from a [[Mujahideen]]training camp in Kashmir<ref name="knightayton"/>  and produced ''Dangerous Journeys'' (by Chameleon Films).
  
 
===2002 - Article 17-Doctors in Palestine===
 
===2002 - Article 17-Doctors in Palestine===
While studying medicine Ahsan was sponsored by the British Council to make this film, which is available on Youtube<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbW1QhQMUts Article 17-Doctors in Palestine]</ref>. Article 17 of the 4th Geneva Convention states that "civilians should be able to access health care in situations of conflict", which Ahsan found not to apply in Palestine.
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While studying medicine Ahsan was sponsored by the [[British Council]] to make this film, which is available on [[Youtube]]<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbW1QhQMUts Article 17-Doctors in Palestine]</ref>. Article 17 of the 4th Geneva Convention states that "civilians should be able to access health care in situations of conflict", which Ahsan found not to apply in Palestine.
 +
 
 +
===2005 - Letters From Belmarsh===
 +
Ahsan read letters to prisoners in Belmarsh prison, on BBC Radio 4.<ref>http://biasedbbc.org/blog/2005/07/</ref>
  
 
===2007 - My Mother's Daughter===
 
===2007 - My Mother's Daughter===
Ahsan's debut cinematic short film was the 12 minute ''My Mother’s Daughter'' which won Best European Film at the 2008 Pangea Film Festival, Los Angeles. The vimeo description reads: "Joyce, Yvonne Ridley’s mother, a devout Christian relays this account of when her daughter, a journalist came back from Afghanistan after being detained by the Taliban converted to Islam."<ref name="vimeo">[http://vimeo.com/19655734 Bridging the Gap]</ref>
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Ahsan's debut cinematic short film was the 12 minute ''My Mother’s Daughter''<ref>http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3841315/</ref> which won Best European Film at the 2008 Pangea Film Festival, Los Angeles. The vimeo description reads: "Joyce, Yvonne Ridley’s mother, a devout Christian relays this account of when her daughter, a journalist came back from Afghanistan after being detained by the Taliban converted to Islam."<ref name="vimeo">[http://vimeo.com/19655734 Bridging the Gap]</ref>
 +
 
 +
===2010 - Crossfire in Kashmir===
 +
A [[Channel4]] documentary, set in Kashmir.<ref>http://www.tiburonfilmfestival.com/contactInfo.php?contact_id=12785</ref>
 +
 
 +
===2013-2017 Trust Me I'm A Doctor===
 +
In 2013 Ahsan co-presented BBC2's ''Trust Me I'm A Doctor'' in which she gave some simple lifesaving tips and answered viewer's health-related questions.<ref name="TMIAD">http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01dgd9c/episodes/guide</ref>
 +
 
 +
===2015 - The Road to Bani Walid===
 +
In February 2015, BBC Radio4 broadcast ''The Road to Bani Walid'' about Selyha Ahsan, describing it as "the story of her journey to confront the reality of revolution - and of her own reasons for being there."<ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b053c3pg</ref>
 +
 
 +
===2016-2020 The One Show===
 +
The One Show.<ref>https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0844203/</ref>
 +
 
 +
===2020 - Covid-19===
 +
{{SMWQ
 +
|text=In that first week there was a window and the UK Government went in a totally different direction to the rest of the world. It was about buying time for the NHS and a [[COVID-19/Vaccine|vaccine]] and they didn’t take it. Other countries were warning us and we didn’t listen. And we will pay the penalty with lives. I don’t want the public to be scared but a dose of reality is their best protection.
 +
|subjects=COVID-19
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|source_URL=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/coronavirus-nhs-doctor-who-worked-21773216
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|source_name=The Mirror
 +
|constitutes=COVID-19/Panic
 +
|authors=Saleyha Ahsan
 +
}}
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Since March 2020, Ahsan has made various appearances in connection with [[COVID-19]].<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/mar/30/tv-tonight-will-michael-jackson-be-airbrushed-from-history</ref><ref>https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000g3k6</ref>
  
===2013 - Trust Me I'm A Doctor===
 
In 2013 Ahsan co-presented BBC2's popular ''Trust Me I'm A Doctor'' in which she gave some simple lifesaving tips and answered viewer's health-related questions.<ref name="TMIAD">http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01dgd9c/episodes/guide</ref>
 
  
 
===In production ===
 
===In production ===
 
+
She is reported to be working with the Raindance Filmmaking Institute on her first feature film script.<ref>http://www.knightayton.co.uk/female-presenters/saleyha-ahsan</ref>
Ahsan was awarded a Radio 4 drama script commission due to be broadcast in 2013.
 
She is now working with the Raindance Filmmaking Institute on her first feature film script.
 
  
 
==Law==
 
==Law==
 
Ahsan's website has stated that she is interested in "the growing use of secret evidence within the British justice system".<ref>[http://www.SaleyhaAhsan.com Personal website coverpage]</ref>
 
Ahsan's website has stated that she is interested in "the growing use of secret evidence within the British justice system".<ref>[http://www.SaleyhaAhsan.com Personal website coverpage]</ref>
  
In 2010 she published a piece in the Guardian entitled ''Guantánamo: holding the 'healers who harm' accountable''<ref>http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jul/13/guantanamo-torture-medics-psychologists</ref> critical of torture practices at [[Guantanamo Bay]].
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In 2010 she published a piece in ''[[the Guardian]]'' entitled ''Guantánamo: holding the 'healers who harm' accountable''<ref>http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jul/13/guantanamo-torture-medics-psychologists</ref> critical of [[torture]] at [[Guantanamo Bay]].
 +
 
 +
In 2011 she completed a masters degree in International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law from [[Essex University]].
  
In 2011 she completed a masters degree in International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law from Essex University.
+
In 2012 she published a piece in the ''Guardian'' entitled ''Secret evidence is the state's secret weapon [[The Home Office]] argues for secret evidence in Siac deportation cases on [[national security]] grounds – except when it applies to them'' about the use of secret evidence in the special immigration appeals commission.
  
In 2012 she published a piece in the Guardian entitled "''Secret evidence is the state's secret weapon
+
==Recent employment==
The Home Office argues for secret evidence in Siac deportation cases on national security grounds – except when it applies to them''" about the use of secret evidence in the special immigration appeals commission.
+
Ahsan has worked as an Ysbyty Gwynedd Pre-hospital Emergency Medicine Clinical Fellow since October 2016.<ref>https://uk.linkedin.com/in/saleyha-ahsan-53871215</ref>
  
 
==References==
 
==References==
 
{{reflist|2}}
 
{{reflist|2}}
[[category:Film Makers]]
 

Latest revision as of 19:34, 7 December 2022

Person.png Saleyha Ahsan   Companies House Facebook IMDB Instagram LinkedIn Twitter Wikispooks userpageRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(journalist, doctor, filmmaker, soldier, spook?)
Saleyha Ahsan.jpg
BornDecember 1970
Barking, Essex, UK
NationalityUK
Alma materSandhurst, University of Dundee
Member ofInternews
Interests • UK/Secret trials
• COVID-19
Interest ofRobert Stuart
A freelance reporter, film maker and A&E doctor with a Sandhurst background. She has traveled to conflict zones in North Africa and Asia and made films and news reports including Libya, Syria, Bosnia, Palestine, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. She appeared with "Dr Rola" in the controversial 2013 video shown on the BBC's Panorama news programme calling for humanitarian bombings of Syria.

Dr Saleyha Ahsan is a UK born doctor cum journalist, a Sandhurst alumna, with a spooky profile. She has been active in warzones including Bosnia, Libya and Syria. In a (rejected) appeal to the BBC, Robert Stuart opined that she had evidenced a "chilling attitude towards children and armed conflict".[1]

Background

Saleyha Ahsan was born a UK citizen in Essex[2], but has stated that "my roots are in Pakistan and Afghanistan."[3] She writes that her best career move was "Gaining a place at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst for officer training".[4], from which she was the first Muslim woman to graduate as a British Army Officer.[5] Ahsan joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and led her troop on a peace keeping mission in Bosnia where she reports that a Brigadier Dr Kevin Beaton "was my squadron commander in Bosnia and inspired me to study medicine".[6]. From 2001 to 2006 she studied Medicine at the University of Dundee, gaining an MBChB[7]. While studying medicine she was awarded scholarships and awards and developed her career as a filmmaker. She continues to work as an A&E doctor.

Journalism

Saleyha Ahsan on COVID-19

Specialising in reports of suffering from war zones, Ahsan has had a remarkable career as a journalist, producing films for a variety of different UK TV and radio programmes, national newspapers and journals. She is a columnist for the Guardian.[8] and has written for the Lancet, The Independent[9] and the New Internationalist.[10]. She works for Knight Ayton as a "news and current affairs presenter". In 2014, she narrated "How did WW1 change the way we treat war injuries today?" for the BBC.[11]

Bosnia

In 2003 Saleyha went back to Bosnia where she had served with the Army, to film "for a charity supporting conflict recovery".[12]

Libya

Ahsan herself reported that "It was by some bizarre fluke that returning home from that first short trip that I sat next to Nader Elhamessi, a Libyan, a Londoner for many years and one of the founders of the aid organization World for Libya".[13] She spent six months "independently filming doctors on the frontline" and producing reports which were aired by BBC online, BBC’s From Our Own Correspondent, Channel 4 News online, the BMJ online and Latitude News. Ahsan is quoted as stating that she "found on (sic.) organisation online called Global Relief Libya - doctors organising themselves and getting involved".[3]|

Syria

Apparent coincidence also took Dr Ahsan to Syria; at a Royal Society of Medicine event in London early in 2012 she reportedly first met Dr Rola[14] whose charity, Hand in Hand for Syria, invited her to Syria in December of that year.[15] The BBC reported in 2016 that Ahsan had "helped raise more than £180,000 to build a children's hospital on the outskirts of embattled Syrian city, Aleppo".[16]

Saving Syria's Children‎‎

Full article: Saving Syria's Children‎‎
Saving Syria's Children.jpg

Dr Ahsan featured in a controversial 2013 video with Dr Rola which was shown on the BBC in the run up to a UK parliamentary vote on whether to bomb Syria. On the 4th of September, 2013, she published an article stating that she witnessed the Dr Rola Aleppo school 'napalm' attack of 27th August, 2013.[17] On the 6th of November, 2013, she posted a story as a guest blogger on the UK DFID website entitled Saving Syria's children which changed the date to 26th August, and expanded very slightly on the information disclosed about it hitherto.[15] Robert Stuart has highlighted various contradictory statements about the purported attack.

image credit:Robert Stuart[18]
image credit:Robert Stuart[19]
image credit:Robert Stuart[20]

Productions

Ahsan has appeared on a variety of shows including Celebrity Island with Bear Grylls. Even while otherwise employed, such as while studying medicine, she has been remarkably successful at continuing to produce films and getting them broadcast by the BBC.

2001 - Dangerous Journeys

Ahsan's Linkedin page reports that in 2001 she successfully pitched an idea to Channel 4 to travel to India and Pakistan and spend 5 weeks there[7] recording interviews with the Kashmiri Mujahideen. "After gaining exclusive access just weeks after 9/11" she presented a BBC5 Live special report from a Mujahideentraining camp in Kashmir[10] and produced Dangerous Journeys (by Chameleon Films).

2002 - Article 17-Doctors in Palestine

While studying medicine Ahsan was sponsored by the British Council to make this film, which is available on Youtube[21]. Article 17 of the 4th Geneva Convention states that "civilians should be able to access health care in situations of conflict", which Ahsan found not to apply in Palestine.

2005 - Letters From Belmarsh

Ahsan read letters to prisoners in Belmarsh prison, on BBC Radio 4.[22]

2007 - My Mother's Daughter

Ahsan's debut cinematic short film was the 12 minute My Mother’s Daughter[23] which won Best European Film at the 2008 Pangea Film Festival, Los Angeles. The vimeo description reads: "Joyce, Yvonne Ridley’s mother, a devout Christian relays this account of when her daughter, a journalist came back from Afghanistan after being detained by the Taliban converted to Islam."[24]

2010 - Crossfire in Kashmir

A Channel4 documentary, set in Kashmir.[25]

2013-2017 Trust Me I'm A Doctor

In 2013 Ahsan co-presented BBC2's Trust Me I'm A Doctor in which she gave some simple lifesaving tips and answered viewer's health-related questions.[26]

2015 - The Road to Bani Walid

In February 2015, BBC Radio4 broadcast The Road to Bani Walid about Selyha Ahsan, describing it as "the story of her journey to confront the reality of revolution - and of her own reasons for being there."[27]

2016-2020 The One Show

The One Show.[28]

2020 - Covid-19

“In that first week there was a window and the UK Government went in a totally different direction to the rest of the world. It was about buying time for the NHS and a vaccine and they didn’t take it. Other countries were warning us and we didn’t listen. And we will pay the penalty with lives. I don’t want the public to be scared but a dose of reality is their best protection.”
Saleyha Ahsan [29]

Since March 2020, Ahsan has made various appearances in connection with COVID-19.[30][31]


In production

She is reported to be working with the Raindance Filmmaking Institute on her first feature film script.[32]

Law

Ahsan's website has stated that she is interested in "the growing use of secret evidence within the British justice system".[33]

In 2010 she published a piece in the Guardian entitled Guantánamo: holding the 'healers who harm' accountable[34] critical of torture at Guantanamo Bay.

In 2011 she completed a masters degree in International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law from Essex University.

In 2012 she published a piece in the Guardian entitled Secret evidence is the state's secret weapon The Home Office argues for secret evidence in Siac deportation cases on national security grounds – except when it applies to them about the use of secret evidence in the special immigration appeals commission.

Recent employment

Ahsan has worked as an Ysbyty Gwynedd Pre-hospital Emergency Medicine Clinical Fellow since October 2016.[35]

References

  1. https://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/2015/04/29/complaint-dr-saleyha-ahsan-the-truth-about-fat-bbc-one-2-april-2015/
  2. http://thelondonstoryteller.wordpress.com/2012/08/24/hello-world/
  3. a b BBC: The road to recovery inside Libya's mountain hospital
  4. https://www.bmj.com/content/360/bmj.k932
  5. http://oneworldaction.wordpress.com/100-unseen-powerful-women/arts-and-media/saleyha-ahsan/
  6. https://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/hospex-macro-simulation-techniques/
  7. a b Linked In Profile
  8. Guardian profile page
  9. https://www.independent.co.uk/author/saleyha-ahsan
  10. a b Knight Ayton profile page
  11. Transcript of "How did WW1 change the way we treat war injuries today?", BBC, February 2014
  12. http://www.tiburonfilmfestival.com/contactInfo.php?contact_id=12785
  13. http://www.latitudenews.com/story/on-the-medical-frontline-of-libyas-uprising-day-one/
  14. http://www.opendemocracy.net/opensecurity/saleyha-ahsan/medicine-as-weapon-of-war-in-syria
  15. a b Saving Syria's Children - DFID Guest Blog
  16. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-38358527
  17. Triage and Terror
  18. https://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/2016/03/26/dr-saleyha-ahsan-contradictions-in-accounts-of-alleged-incendiary-bomb-attack/
  19. https://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/2016/03/26/dr-saleyha-ahsan-contradictions-in-accounts-of-alleged-incendiary-bomb-attack/
  20. https://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/2016/03/26/dr-saleyha-ahsan-contradictions-in-accounts-of-alleged-incendiary-bomb-attack/
  21. Article 17-Doctors in Palestine
  22. http://biasedbbc.org/blog/2005/07/
  23. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3841315/
  24. Bridging the Gap
  25. http://www.tiburonfilmfestival.com/contactInfo.php?contact_id=12785
  26. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01dgd9c/episodes/guide
  27. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b053c3pg
  28. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0844203/
  29. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/coronavirus-nhs-doctor-who-worked-21773216 The Mirror
  30. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/mar/30/tv-tonight-will-michael-jackson-be-airbrushed-from-history
  31. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000g3k6
  32. http://www.knightayton.co.uk/female-presenters/saleyha-ahsan
  33. Personal website coverpage
  34. http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jul/13/guantanamo-torture-medics-psychologists
  35. https://uk.linkedin.com/in/saleyha-ahsan-53871215