Dr Karamat Iqbal was born in Azad Kashmir and has lived in Birmingham since 1970. He has worked in education and equality in a variety of roles, including youth and community worker, school teacher, race equality officer, college lecturer, schools’ adviser, and consultant.
He is currently an education and diversity consultant, having written several books. A Biography of the Word Paki and Performing Race both explore the issues faced by people of colour in the workplace. In 2013, he published Dear Birmingham, which examines the exclusion of the Pakistani community from mainstream British society. Between 2011 and 2017, he undertook doctoral research that was later published as British Pakistani Boys, Education, and the Role of Religion (Routledge).
Reflecting on the roots of his anti-racism work, Karamat says:
“My anti-racism activism was not by choice. It was imposed on me. On the first day in my first school in 1971, a tall White boy picked me up, banged me against the wall and said, ‘We don’t want any more f**king Pakis in our school.’”
