Dr. Shaheen Shahzadi Chaudhry Face to Face with the High Sheriff

May I ask when did your family first move to Bristol? We moved to Bristol in the late sixties, 1968 to be exact.

Where did you move from?

We came from Cambridge initially in 1964. My father was a GPO (General Post Office) installer working in the GPO offices so we moved around quite a bit in the South West. Sidmouth, Yeovil, Taunton, Cirencester and then Bristol.

So fairly local?

Yes, around the South West, it was a nomadic life in those days. I attended schools temporally in the cities, we were in but my main school was Knowle Junior School, from there I got a scholarship into Red Maids School which is an all girl school, and from there to Bristol University.

That’s not always easy to get right.

No, especially if you’re a mother as well as a wife, hospitality must be maintained at all times in our culture but I’ve got used to it now, I’d be lost without it I think.

Moving on to the role of High Sherriff, how do you feel about being the first Muslim lady to be appointed to this role?

I feel very privileged and humbled that somebody has thought that I am of that caliber to become the High Sherriff and represent the city, I am truely privileged and honoured for that. I am very proud as a Bristolian that this is now happening as obviously Bristol has a bad history what with it being a slave port and only 50 years ago Bristol Omnibus and the Transport and General Workers Union were not allowing any black conductors or drivers. the changes are phenomenal, this is a groundbreaking year, especialy for us having Farouk coming in as Lord Mayor and what will follow him.

Do you think this is the sign of another big change?

Absolutely I think people now are open and broad minded, people are much more accepting. Despite the terrorism, despite the Islamophobia, despite all the racism, discrimination that is prevalent in certain parts of society and parts of the City, I think the goodness outweighs the negative. We need to represent more of the diversity of this city because it is rich in its culture, in its diverse people, in its language and its food and that should be celebrated. Any excuse and reason we can use, then it should be used and I think would be a facilitator to bring the diversity of this city together and encourage people from our community to come forward to prepare to become High Sheriff because it’s a non-remunerated position. What you can achieve is amazing and what you can do for your community especially the Black and Minority Ethnic Community, is worth stepping forward and getting involved. People are just people, they have different religions and different viewpoints but we are all people. This is going to be a wonderful year this year. This is going to be reflected at the High Sheriffs concert on the 14th of June at the Bristol Cathedral which I am arranging. to raise money for BYCA which is the Bristol Youth Action Charity for under privileged children between 8-13 years can have play schemes and activities in the holidays so rather than hanging around on the street corners and making a nuisance of themselves they are actually actively involved so hopefully it prevents them from getting into the criminal justice system.

That’s a great idea. Have you got any other plans that we can tell people about within your position, sort of an idea of what you want to achieve by the end of the year?

Yes, there’s the legal Sunday when we welcome the start of the new legal year, Judges and people from the law are involved. various fundraising events that are going to be held possibly at the Mansion House, we are just at the negotiating stages at the moment or possibly at the City Hall.

“This is my City, this is my country”

And what about personally, do you have any goals that you would like to achieve personally still or have you achieved a lot of things that you wanted to do in your life?

Oh Good Lord no! There’s more to be done. Personally, I’m very passionate about mental health especially in young adults which i’m going to be raising awareness of during my year. This is because I’ve been a JP for 20 years and some youngsters coming into the criminal justice system need to be within the NHS getting proper treatment and they fall through. By the time they are diagnosed properly and treated their quality of life has deteriorated. So the quicker they are treated properly and appropriately with services that are accessible to them the quicker they can have a better quality of life. I want to raise awareness of that. My other passion is to raise awareness of children with learning and physical difficulties. That’s on a semi professional/personal level. On a personal level I would like to do a lot more travelling.

That sounds really nice! Where would you like to go?

Spain would be my first choice at the moment; my father and I are planning to go to Southern Spain, Alhambra, Granada, and Cordoba, all the old Islamic places and see the Moorish influence. I would also likke to visit Africa.

Going back to mental health, I still think that it’s something that’s a taboo subject.

As soon as you have admitted you have an issue and you are treated for it is really important that people know you can carry on with normal life. I know people think that mental health is either an excuse for certain types of behaviour or you are going to go crazy and people don’t want you around. In my experience that’s certainly not the case with 90% of the people I know who have mental health issues. But it’s really down to getting the right treatment as quickly as possible. And that’s why with youngsters because of the behavioral element people parents may not be aware or the police are not aware so first thing they do is get into

And they’re in total the wrong section then?

Absolutely, time is wasted, time is precious and time is lost. It makes the prognosis depressingly bad, if it’s not dealt with in a timely manner. Sitting on mental health tribunals you, see the other end of it when they are in Hospital or are sectioned.

And then it can end tragically?

Yes that’s when they are a risk to themselves, their health, their safety or the safety of others, the risks are so bad that they have to be sectioned and they end up in Hospital. Even when in the community, the community is not resourced well enough to be able to cope and care for them. In the Black & Minority Ethnic Community you find that the stigma of mental health and the cultural, people don’t talk about it.

They don’t want to admit it or want to go to the GP because they don’t want to be perceived as ‘going mad’. That’s the word they use so they’ll use homeopathic medication or religious means , which I don’t say is wrong nevertheless it needs to have proper medication. It’s not a stigma, it’s not your fault, it’s nobody’s fault it happens, just like any other illness. As a freelance trainer over the years since 2000 when I left Maternity and Health Links, the organisation that I set up to provide language support for non English speaking users of the health service, I took a couple of years out and did some voluntary work overseas then I came back and started doing freelance training to agencies, raising cultural awareness what we now call diversity and training.

So what they need to do for instance is to be culturally aware of how to address people, handshaking – is it appropriate in their circumstances? Eye contact – is it appropriate?

It’s about looking at the culture of things so that the barriers aren’t there for service providers and they can go in and give their service without spending time on learning a bit more. And I do this in the first instance and then 4 months later I go back in to see how they put it into practice, what are the difficulties they’ve experienced and what do they think they are going to change to make sure that they don’t have that again.

I think that is a really important because people are afraid of what they don’t know.

Yes and they don’t want to ask questions. They don’t want to be seen as either ignorant or prejudiced and so I create a safe environment and I say this is the place you can ask any question that you have always wanted to but never had the confidence or opportunity to do it. It’s wonderful, at the end of the session I get comments like,” I didn’t know you had a sense of humour”, you must learn to have a sense of humour, it breaks down so many barriers that it just gives me such a high.