Talk:Shahnaz Ali

Criticisms regarding citations have been noted and are being attended to. Plainsense (talk) 18:07, 8 May 2012 (UTC)

Improving this biography
First full disclosure. I am Christine Burns. Plainsense (talk) 09:59, 12 May 2012 (UTC) As a consultant the subject of this article is a client of mine. The article was not begun by me. However, as someone who knows the subject well, and is concerned (as an equalities specialist) about the proper recognition of exceptional people from protected groups I am keen to help editors to improve this piece and avoid it being deleted. My apologies to the WikiPedia community for attempting to contribute references directly to help this. However I soon understood as a rookie editor that this is discouraged. Therefore I am here on the talk page to assist independent editors to improve the piece instead.

Notability
I believe this individual is genuinely notable for two reasons.

Firstly, because of her historical involvement in the British Black and Asian Youth Movements ... an area of equalities history that is only just beginning to be re-explored, thirty years after the events. As a young Asian Woman, Ali was unusual ... the main protagonists were young men ... and for a variety of reasons her part has therefore tended to be downplayed or written out. The decision not to charge her alongside the (male) Bradford 12 is asserted to have been a political one.

Second, in her more recent career, over the last decade, Ali has made a major mark in the advancement of equality outcomes ... generating a series of groundbreaking developments which have had national level importance in the NHS. Now, I appreciate that WikiPedia is not a prime reference, and that the conventional approach is that someone should be thoroughly covered in independent reliable third party sources. Obviously I appreciate too that I am so close to the subject to be regarded as non-neutral and having a conflict of interest. However, that brings me to the rub...

Invisibility and erasure
Many notable people from equality groups (nowadays called 'protected characteristics') suffer the problem that their achievements are not documented in the channels that the dominant community controls. The issue is exacerbated if you work in the equalities field, as the mainstream tends to mischaracterise the value of such work to begin with. As a former activist with a protected characteristic, and as an equalities consultant, I'm pointedly aware of this myself. Worse (and this is why I'm passionate about solving the challenge in this case) there are people in more privileged positions who are not above appropriating good work without due credit. I don't want to see WikiPedia later being used to 'big up' those kinds of people, who are in a better position to tick the notability boxes by getting the coverage.

To use the terminology of my profession, I think it's important to be aware of the potential for indirect discrimination. That is, although it is wholly unintended and unforeseen, there is a risk that the policies which WikiPedia has developed could apply in a way that disadvantages some people compared to others. Indirect discrimination is hard to spot when you have privilege.

Not a special pleading
This is not a special pleading. I thoroughly approve the tough editorial standards which WikiPedia now imposes. I believe that an article like this therefore needs to be strengthened the right way ... by solving the lack of reliable secondary references in the real world. That takes time, however. So the only thing I do ask is that admins grant the time which that kind of referential back-filling takes, and that WikiPedians who understand the problems I've described (which apply to many great people from minorities) help with that project. Looking around at the entries (or lack of other entries) for other genuinely notable people with minority backgrounds, I can see that this case is far from unique.

As I said at the outset, I acknowledge the needs to be hands off in the editing of the entry. However, I place myself at the disposal of editors who need any help sourcing better references.

I hope that's fair. Plainsense (talk) 09:59, 12 May 2012 (UTC)

Award of OBE (Dec 2012)
I have DIRECTLY added reference to the award of an OBE in the Queen's New Year's Honours, published Dec 29th 2012. This is in an honest effort to address the call for independent sources to verify notability for the subject. Whilst doing that I have also added an InfoBox in order to contribute to improving the quality of the entry. As the OBE is a matter of public record I trust that this edit does not cross the line of conflict of interest.

Plainsense (talk) 16:14, 29 December 2012 (UTC)

New Secondary References
In the last few months Shahnaz Ali has been the subject of a number of articles in the Guardian Newspaper. These address many of the issues which were previously flagged up with the biography. Further articles will be added as and when available. In view of these additions I feel it is appropriate to review and remove the banners on this page, as the issues have been substantially rectified.

Plainsense (talk) 18:56, 11 March 2013 (UTC)