Meet Yasmin Anshoor
Welcome to The Club Diaries: A spotlight series amplifying the incredible people within our Club community doing wonderful things!
Meet Yasmin Anshoor - a marketer working in the dynamic world of publishing! Yasmin shares her insights and ideas about how publishing impacts us all. Plus, with Ramadan coming up, she gave us some insight into what makes this time of year so special.
Yasmin Anshoor Photographed by Zeinab Audu
Could you tell us a bit about yourself & the industry you work in?
I’m a marketing assistant for a well-established publishing company and have now been working in the industry for over a year. It’s been an eye-opening experience, to say the least!
How has the publishing industry worked to ensure that Black Muslim Women are heard and represented?
Publishing has a LONG way to go before it can call itself inclusive. I think there are many ways the industry can strive towards making Black women and also Black Muslim women feel represented. This starts with the understanding that there is a market for all of us.
“There is finally new research happening within the big publishing houses that shows that people of colour are a huge part of the market that are often completely overlooked.”
When the publishing industry begins to make strides in making sure those markets are finally catered to, from buying more work from Black women (and Black Muslim women), and also hiring and helping to move Black industry workers up the career ladder, I think publishing can then begin to see real progress.
Image credit: Zeinab Audu
What’s your favourite genre of book & why?
My favourite genre is definitely Fantasy. I LOVE my SFF (Sci-Fi Fantasy), it’s true escapism. It truly has it all, the drama, the action and then the occasional sprinkle of romance because that is how you make any book better.
Occasionally, I read a bit of literary fiction or a random memoir. Here are some recommendations: Chanel Miller - Know My Name, Trevor Noah - Born a crime, it’s about his upbringing during the apartheid - very funny and even made me cry too and Janette McCurdy from iCarly recently did a memoir - I’m glad my Mum died and it was SO good! Highly recommend it.
As Ramadan is right around the corner, are you excited & do you have any special practices and goals that you would like to put in place?
Absolutely! I’m very excited about Ramadan, it’s a very spiritual and special time for us Muslims. It’s like a refresher, there are so many bad habits we get into and pick up throughout the year and we don’t even realise it, so I feel like Ramadan is a good time to cut those habits out and start fresh.
“So many people are trying to be better & it’s reassuring to know that everyone is in the same boat.”
When it comes to how I spend my time, I could be doing a lot more such as reading the Quran, listening to Khutbahs (Islamic Lectures) and Dhikr (Reminding oneself of Allah), and just doing things to optimise my time.
Video credit: Maryiam Sanyang
Modesty is a big conversation within the Muslim community. How do you manage to express your personal style whilst maintaining your modesty?
It’s been a real journey. Obviously, when I was younger I felt like I didn’t really care that much. As I’ve gotten older we’ve seen the number of Muslim influencers with their hijabs on increase, which is always good to see. This has helped with style inspiration and modest outfit alternatives.
On the other hand, it’s easy to look at someone who dresses modestly by wearing an Abaya (cloak) or a modest dress & call that modesty but within that, there are ways to maintain your personal style and identity.
“Personally, I add pops of colour, keep it girly but also wear baggy cargo pants, or loose-fitting clothes which I like anyway so I guess it makes it easy to stay modestly dressed. I haven’t mastered it yet, your girl is trying!”
Image credit: Zeinab Audu
If there's one message you would like someone to take away from your experience existing as a Black Muslim woman making a way for herself, what would that be?
Not only do I work in a notoriously white industry, but I’m also one of the few Muslims in the entire company. It can feel super isolating sometimes, and when no one around you is experiencing the problems you do, it’s easy to feel like they’re just in your head.
“My advice would be to find a support system of people who can relate to your experiences and who make you feel heard and your emotions validated.”
What’s important about feeling heard is that you realise that yes these problems exist and you’re not the only one experiencing them. It then helps you feel the courage to try to speak up and change these systems to make it easier for future people who look like you to succeed in these spaces.
Thanks so much to Yasmin for taking the time to share her publishing & spiritual journey with us! To connect with Yasmin and the Club community, click HERE to join today!
LinkedIn: Yasmin Anshoor
