Shaista has worked as a communications specialist for a number of international organisations including Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and Oxfam. She has also worked extensively across the Middle East, Pakistan, East and West Africa.
Shaista's writing and journalism has been published in many international publications including The Guardian, Globe and Mail, Huffington Post and New York Times.
Shaista contributed to the 2017 anthology, The Things I would Tell You, British Muslim Women Write and she is currently writing her own tome, to be published by NorthWest University Press.
Shaista is the founder of the anti-racism, anti-bigotry digital platform, The Everyday Bigotry Project and is co-founder of the Women's Advancement Hub, WAH, Pakistan.
Here are some of the highlights of Shaista’s public speaking events last year.
- Keynote speaker at the NGO Insight Conference with senior leaders in the NGO sector. Her 45 min speech focused on #MeToo #AidToo, race, power and privilege.
- Keynote speech in Barcelona alongside representatives of Barcelona City Council and the government of Catalonia on Islamophobia and the media in Europe.
- Spoke at Cambridge & Durham Unions about reforming British aid.
- Spoke at the Rhodes Scholars’ Humanities Forum to talk about opening up political space for greater representation of voices and how to own one’s stories and narratives.
- Keynote speaker at St Hughes College, University of Oxford, for their diversity and inclusion dinner.
- Twice invited to the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford to talk about inequalities, homelessness, and creating more equal cities.
- Spoke at LSE on gender parity, activism and #MeToo.
- Delivered keynote speech at the University of Coventry on intersectionality and equality.
- Spoke at CLASS think tank about homelessness and the housing crisis.
- Contributed to panel discussions at the Labour Party Conference 2019 in Brighton, about gender equality, feminism, and countering the far right.