We all know how Saffiyah Khan stood up face to face against the EDL thug earlier this year, that picture that captured the moment has propelled Khan to international recognition. Saffiyah Khan has now been named as one of the stylist magazine’s ‘Women of the Year’.<\/p>\n
The Image of Saffiyah Khan, 19, confronting a member of far-right group the English Defence League went viral in April 2017. The picture which captured the moment during a demonstration in Birmingham city centre, shows\u00a0Saffiyah smiling with her hands casually in her pockets \u2013 amused and unafraid at the angry, red face of Ian Crossland \u2013 it became a iconic symbol of defiance against intolerance.<\/p>\n
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Saffiyah Khan has become a highly respected social & political activist and has continued to pursue her passion to speak out. Khan has been a speaker at events with the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, has also appeared on TV shows such as Channel 4’s The Last Leg. Recently Saffiyah Khan has hosted a photo exhibition in Birmingham and now even trying out modelling.<\/p>\n
Talking about her experience from the demonstration Saffiyah Khan said to Stylist Magazine:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew the EDL were coming to Birmingham, and they have a long history of targeting locals. A group of mates and I went down. I am politically active and have been going on protests since I was quite young.<\/p>\n
We were at the rally for 45 minutes before anything happened. Then a lady came over \u2013 Saira Zafar \u2013 and started calling the EDL xenophobes and bigots. They surrounded her. We thought, we\u2019re going to have to get involved now.<\/p>\n
Soon after we pulled her out, that picture was taken of me. It was taken by Joe Giddens from the Press Association. There was a lot of press there, because last time the EDL came, there were riots. I was way too young to get involved then.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just a moment. Our general rationale was, \u2018Keep your hands in your pockets\u2019, because the far-righters will take any excuse to say, \u2018She did this\u2019. We should be very wary of the increase in far-right politics in this country. More needs to be done. It\u2019s becoming mainstream.<\/p>\n
After the protest, I saw the photo. I thought, \u2018That\u2019s a decent picture\u2019, and sent it to a friend. Then it went crazy, there were loads of things popping up on Facebook. All the newspapers were getting in touch.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t have a mobile at the time because I\u2019d lost it and decided to stay \u2018off grid\u2019, so my dad took on the role of PA. A couple of years ago he said I wasn\u2019t allowed to go to any more protests because he had to pick me up from the police station once, but with this he couldn\u2019t be angry at me. Tommy Robinson, who co-founded the EDL, tweeted that it had embarrassed them. I\u2019ll take that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nFor the last issue of 2017, Stylist photographed and interviewed 10 heroic women \u2013 such as Grenfell firefighter Louisa De Silvo \u2013 to celebrate the year\u2019s incredible moments of compassion, courage and resilience\u2026 📸: @mark_harrison_photography . . . #heroes #celebrate #women #2017<\/a><\/p>\n
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