Lord Mayor of Bradford Naveeda Ikram, UK’s first female Muslim Lord Mayor, is among the candidates for the Women of the Year Awards to be announced at the Intercontinental Hotel on London’s Park Lane today.
Also among the 400 guests at the 56th Women of the Year Lunch and Awards, will be part-time Tesco checkout operator Hayley Pickles, from Seamer, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, hand-picked for her work as a trade union learning representative, the organisers said.
Ikram, born in Rochdale, graduated in psychology from Manchester University and holds a MSc in sociology from Punjab University. Married with three children, she has been a Labour councillor in Bradford since 2004 and aims to use her year as mayor to be “an active ambassador for the city about which she is so passionate,” according to the council.
At the lunch, five awards will be presented to women who have each proved an inspiration to others. The winners are selected by a cross-section of women represented on the nominating council, including prominent figures from the arts, media, science, politics and a number of other major fields.
Previous Women of the Year Award winners include: singer Annie Lennox; Ann Cotton, who set up the Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED), Claire Bertschinger, the nurse who inspired Sir Bob Geldof to set up LiveAid, and Shy Keenan and Sara Payne, who campaigned for the introduction of tighter controls on convicted paedophiles released back into the community.
The Women of the Year Lunch and Assembly was co-founded in 1955 by the late Lady Tony (Antonella) Lothian OBE with Lady Georgina Coleridge and Odette Hallowes.
Since its inception, it has raised more than £1 million for a variety of charities both in the UK and overseas, and since 2001 has continued its donations through the Women of the Year Foundation.
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC is the organisation’s current president, withTeresa Graham as its chair.
Barclays, Good Housekeeping, Sacla, Sainsbury’s and ITV1’s Lorraine each sponsor one of the awards.
