Yassmin Adbel-Magied

Yassmin Abdel-Magied is an award-winning speaker, one of the 2020 LinkedIn Changemakers and 2022 Tiktok Teammates, and a globally sought-after advisor on issues of social justice, focussing specifically on the intersections of race, gender and faith. Travelling to over 24 countries across five continents, Yassmin saw herself speaking to governments, civil society and corporates on inclusive leadership, tackling bias and achieving substantive change. Yassmin’s internationally commended TED talk, What does my headscarf mean to you, was chosen as one of TED’s top ten ideas in 2015, receiving over 2.3 million views. Yassmin challenges the orthodox view of gender in Islam and has spurred global conversation about being a young black Muslim woman in the West in todays society. Speaking out came at a cost, and now ‘getting Yassmined’ is an academically recognised term for the punishment meted out against women of colour who challenge white comfort.

Starting out as a race car chassis designer, Yassmin was Team Principal of the UQ Race Car Team at 19. Graduating as Valedictorian with First Class honours from mechanical engineering at 20, and going on to work as one of the few female engineers on oil and gas rigs around Australia, before finally pivoting to focus on her writing and broadcasting career.

Yassmin founded her first organisation, Youth Without Borders, at the young age of 16, and ran it for 9 years before she went on to co-found two other organisations centred around serving women of colour, later starting Mumtaza a decade later, with a further focus on women of colour. She went on to publish her best-selling memoir, Yassmin's Story, with Penguin Random House at age 24, following up with her first novel for younger readers, You Must Be Layla, in 2019. Yassmin has published four books in total, written two plays, and is currently developing multiple projects for screen. Her TV show Same Same, co-created with Tania Safi, was optioned for production by Little Dot Studios in 2019. In 2020, Yassmin co-wrote the sold-out immersive theatre production at Kensington Palace, United Queendom, and was awarded the prestigious Keesing Studio International Development Residency by the Australia Council. Yassmin’s social commentary has appeared in TIME magazine, The Guardian, Teen Vogue, The Independent, Huffpost, London’s Evening Standard and more, with her work on the Sudanese Revolutions of particular focus. Her highly respected essays have been published widely, including in the best-selling, It’s Not About The Burqa and The New Daughters of Africa.

On TV, Yassmin presented for the national current affairs show Australia Wide, and was the host for the ground-breaking documentary The Truth About Racism, and created Hijabistas, a series exploring modest fashion in Australia. She can be seen as a regular news and current affairs commentator on The BBC, Aljazeera, Monocle 24 and as a presenter on various BBC World Service radio programs. She has hosted a number of podcasts, including Motor Mouth (on becoming a Formula 1 driver), EY’s Better Questions (helping CEOs lead into the future), and The Guilty Feminist.

Yassmin’s work is informed by both theory and experience, with over a decade of governance experience across sectors. She has been awarded a plethora of awards for her advocacy, including the 2018 Young Voltaire Award for Free Speech, FYA’s Changemaker of the Year in 2017 and Queensland Young Australian of the Year in 2015. Yassmin has prior experience serving on the Boards of the Queensland Museum, ChildFund Australia, the Australian Multicultural Council, The Council for Australian-Arab Relations and the domestic violence prevention organisation, OurWatch, and is now a Trustee of the London Library. Yassmin was Head of Media for the Australian Youth G20 Summit, the Gender Ambassador for the Inter-American Development Bank and a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering Global Challenges Steering Committee.

Yassmin is a passionate advocate for transformative justice and creating a fairer, safer world for all.