Speaking to Razia Iqbal about her life and work as a journalist

The first question that Razia Iqbal asked me when we began our interview, was why I had pursued her for a call. The root of the question, though, was why her? I considered complimenting her profusely about her career, which I do very much admire, or just be honest. I took the latter approach and told her how it is not often that I, a Punjabi woman from Bangkok, hear or see of another Punjabi woman on screen or on the radio. Not just a Punjabi woman, but one from various cities and backgrounds. When I discovered Razia Iqbal on BBC’s NewsHour, I immediately knew I had to connect with her.  

Iqbal has worked for the BBC for over 30 years in radio, TV, and broadcasting. Not only that, she was one of the judges for Women’s Prize for Fiction Contest in 2013. But I already knew all of this from my research. Iqbal has had a long-spanning career, has met amazing people like Sting and Jacqueline Wilson, and is still forging on. But what set her apart from anyone else in the journalism sphere, for me, was her upbringing.

Born in Uganda, Iqbal and her family lived in Nairobi until she was 8-years-old. “It was quite clear that being part of a minority was something to be acutely aware of and sometimes being wary of being around people who my parents told me to be nervous of.”

As an 8-year-old when she first moved to London, Iqbal described her classmates as consisting of mainly white students or Afro-Caribbean. She was the only one of Asian descent in her high school. “I arrived in London and was immediately different because of the colour of my skin. I spoke English with a heavy accent, and I could write joined up handwriting.” In fact, one of her teachers stopped her from writing like that, as no one else could do it.

According to the Office for National Statistics 2011 census, people from India and Pakistan are amongst the largest migrant groups in Britain. But it does not include other people of South Asian descent who have moved from different areas of the world, like Iqbal and her family. The world in the 1970s, though, was another story as Iqbal mentioned how most of her friends were white.  

“I also had a strong sense that my father was not from Nairobi or Kenya, and that he came from another place.” Iqbal’s father was born in Delhi, India and moved to Pakistan after the partition. “You’re aware of the world that is much bigger than the one you’re living in, and that allows you to think of all kinds of things.” This early awareness pushed her to turn to books at the age of 12. “I was reading novels that were really for adults. I went to the library and asked the librarian to recommend something, and I remember one of the first things she recommended was Jane Austen’s Persuasion”. She began reading a lot of 19th century literature.

“Reading helped me order things in my mind in a way that a lot of girls my age that time didn’t really take the time to. I just really wanted to belong and found solace in words.”  

As she continued schooling, her teacher told her about a particular columnist who had been a foreign correspondent in the Guardian for years - James Cameron. “My mother gave me money to buy sweets once a week and I used to buy the Guardian on a Tuesday. He was the first person to make me think about the world beyond the three places I knew - Uganda, Nairobi, and London.” It had sparked her curiosity about the world. As an avid reader, then, it may have been surprising that this passion didn’t extend to school. “I failed every exam I’ve ever taken. I was very lucky to get into college”. She attended the University of East Anglia and graduated with a degree in American Studies in 1985. She received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University in 2013. 

With so much change happening when moving to London, I asked about her support system with family. “I never really communicated with my parents about my experience, which is not uncommon for immigrant communities.” She described how her parents did not have the “instinctive immigrant mentality” of aspiring for better education or good grades. “My parents wanted me to behave well and not have expectations.” Part of these expectations included not attending college, but Iqbal and her sister insisted and were the first in their family to graduate from college. “My father taught himself how to read and write, and my mother was married at the age of 18 and had her first child at the age of 19.”

When Iqbal began working at the BBC, she had only been given a six-month contract. A few months in, she was asked to fly to a different country. “I was standing in the lift and my boss very casually asked me what I was doing in the next few days. I said something like admin stuff and laundry. He then asked ‘how would you like to go to Pakistan?’ Within seconds, I said yes.”

Iqbal worked as a political correspondent in the London newsroom and had the opportunity to report from Pakistan and from Sri Lanka. Eventually, she noticed how there wasn’t an arts correspondent role at the World Service and asked for her superiors to create such a position. Not only did they create it but they also hired her to be the first person to assume that role. A few years later, the domestic news post created an arts correspondent position and she applied, and successfully assumed that role. It was the first time she would have ever done TV but it didn’t seem to phase her. 

“You can make your own luck by recognising opportunity. Most of the things that I have said yes to have been fine and have led to other things and have done the single thing to make my world bigger and bigger.”

Iqbal described the World Service newsroom when she first started as lacking in diversity - the only people who came from different parts of the world were from the White Commonwealth countries and there were three people of colour in what was supposed to be an international Newsroom. In fact, 2019 was the first year that the British Asian Media Awards was held in London to honour South Asian media and the advertising industries.

“The World Service newsroom was split for me between people who taught me an awful lot for writing for radio and people who taught me the way in which prejudice works - that it’s subtle, nuanced, hardly ever overt and there is a defensiveness inherent in it being called out on it.” In fact from 2015 to 2018, the BAME workforce increased from 13.1% to 14.8% - the highest percentage at the BBC ever.

Despite an environment that was lacking in diversity also being filled with Oxbridge graduates, according to Iqbal, she never really paid any attention to the seemingly inherent obstacles. “I don’t go into the newsroom thinking about my career - I go in thinking about the audience and what they want to hear.” According to Iqbal, this helped formed the type of journalist she has become, and currently is – somebody who is not frightened to ask for help and to ask questions and to always keep on asking.

How, in the face of constant change and uncertainty from a young age, did Iqbal have the strength and conviction to pursue journalism? Her answer is books. “The single most important lesson one can take away from reading fiction is that it creates a deep empathy; it teaches you how to stand in someone’s else’s shoes and this is invaluable in journalism.” This ability, in today’s political climate in the midst of a global pandemic of Covid-19, is perhaps one of the most essential qualities one can have. Apart from James Cameron, Iqbal cites Martha Gilhorn as another one of her mentors as she writes stories of ordinary people whose lives are shaped by politics.

“The interest in politics isn’t about what one person decides to do and how policy is shaped. It is much more about about the impact on people’s lives.”

After working in almost all facets of journalism, Iqbal wonders if she should try her hand at writing something longer and perhaps fiction, as her world is so dominated by books. But this desire comes with trepidation. “There so many books in the world and while you can believe that everyone has a book in them, why would I assume that there is something I have that would rise above the thousands already published?”

This answer surprised me, as I thought of all the people and stories she has found and shared to world. She continued on to explain how writing is about delving deep in the imagination, which takes effort and time. But as her children are at college now, she may have time on her hands. “I choose to say what comes out of my mouth everyday at work.” Maybe it’s time she does it on paper.