As someone born and raised in Bradford, with Indian Muslim roots, my life has been a journey of balancing identities – maintaining the heritage of my ancestors while embracing the culture of my hometown. Growing up in the 1980s, I was part of a much smaller South Asian diaspora than exists today. Back then, racism often went unchallenged, and stereotypes about people like me – brown, female, and working-class were rife. The expectation was that we would have no aspirations, and if we did, they would amount to very little.
It has taken me almost 40 years to feel that, despite the colour of my skin, my religious beliefs, and my love for Bollywood and curry, Bradford and of course the UK is truly my home.
Recently, I reconnected with a group of school friends, all brown, all from working-class backgrounds, and from various faiths. It struck me why we connected so well back then. While our white classmates were lovely, there was an unspoken assumption in our school days that they would “become something” while we would follow a predictable path of marriage, children, and modest jobs. But that narrative has been turned on its head.
Among my friends are a director at KPMG, a Learning Mentor, a pharmacist, finance and insurance specialists, and a Senior Lead for an NHS Trust. As for me, I’ve built six ethnic media titles that reach more than half a million readers weekly. Not bad for a group of brown kids whose potential was once dismissed.
This brings me to Bradford City of Culture 2025. For people like me, who’ve grown up fighting to be accepted and included, the idea of a City of Culture has immense potential, if it truly involves everyone. My immediate concern has always been ensuring that inclusivity is at its heart.
After years of discussing accountability and transparency, I like every single Bradfordian am fully invested, to ensure the City of Culture works for all of us – after all it is ‘Our Time’.
So as the press invite arrived for the big day of the launch event, I put myself forward to attend the press tour and witness the amazing offering of my home town. While the event showcased some fantastic projects and places that made me proud, I couldn’t ignore the glaring absence of ethnic media. Out of the two South Asian outlets present, none were from Pakistani or Bangladeshi representations, despite one in three people in Bradford identifying as South Asian. If City of Culture is meant to celebrate grassroots communities, shouldn’t grassroots media also have a seat at the table?
That said, the press tour highlighted Bradford’s incredible artistic and cultural offerings. The launch culminated in the breath-taking Rise performance, headlined by Steven Frayne, (Dynamo) and featuring over 200 artists showcasing acrobatics, music, and poetry. It was an unforgettable experience.
Even more heart-warming was seeing thousands of Bradfordians, families braving the freezing temperatures, pay just £2 a ticket to celebrate together in City Park. It reminded me of the unity my classmates and I shared, how, at a grassroots level, Bradford’s people instinctively see each other as equals. The division in my view comes from leadership, where decisions about inclusion are often muddled by power and politics.
As City of Culture unfolds, my hope is that it delivers not just a return on the millions invested but also a legacy of inclusivity that reflects the grassroots spirit of Bradford.
Because the people of this city deserve nothing less.
