Dr Mehreen Faruqi joined the NSW Legislative Council in June 2013 and is the first Muslim woman elected to any Parliament in Australia. Prior to this she was the Director of the Institute of Environmental Studies at University of NSW and an Associate Professor in Business and Sustainability. She is a civil and environmental engineer with a PHD in Environmental Engineering. Since migrating from Pakistan to Australia in 1992, with her young family, Mehreen’s work has focused on developing real solutions to social and environmental challenges.In 2013, Mehreen received the UNSW Faculty of Engineering Award for Leadership and was voted No.5 in Fairfax Media Daily Life’s list of top 20 women for 2013 who made a difference and inspired Australians and a finalist in 2015. In 2015 she was announced as one of the top 100 Most Influential Engineers in Australia. She is a Fellow of the Institution on Engineers Australia and a member of the Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand. In October 2017 Mehreen was awarded Grand Stirrer 2017 at the 20th Edna Ryan Awards for the End12 abortion decriminalisation campaign.You can tweet her @mehreenfaruqi or visit her site: http://www.mehreenfaruqi.org.au/And get in touch with us via @askingforitpod on twitter, facebook and instagram