Rabia Siddique is a criminal and human rights lawyer, a retired British Army officer, a former terrorism and war crimes prosecutor, a professional speaker, trainer, MC, facilitator and published author.

In 2006 Rabia was awarded a Queen’s commendation for her human rights work in Iraq and in 2009 was the Runner Up for Australian Woman of the Year UK. More recently Rabia was named as one of the 2014 Telstra Business Women’s Award Finalists and one of the 100 most influential women in Australia by Westpac and the Australian Financial Review. Rabia was also announced as a finalist for the 2016 Australian of the Year Awards.

After starting life as a criminal defence lawyer and youngest ever Federal prosecutor in Western Australia, Rabia moved to the UK in 1998 where she eventually commissioned as a Legal Officer in the British Army in 2001.

In a terrifying ordeal that garnered worldwide attention, along with a male colleague, Rabia assisted with the rescue of two Special Forces soldiers from Iraqi insurgents in Basra. Her male colleague received a Military Cross for outstanding bravery, while Rabia’s part in the incident was covered up by the British Army and Government. In a fight for justice she brought a landmark discrimination case against the UK Ministry of Defence, and won.

Rabia went on to become a Crown Advocate in the British Counter Terrorism Division, which saw her prosecuting terrorists, hate crimes and advising on war crimes rosecutions in The Hague.

In 2013, Rabia wrote and published her now best selling memoir, ‘Equal Justice’, which is a story about strength, resilience, courage, conviction and determination. An Australian/UK feature film about her life is being developed.

Rabia, a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), has earned an International reputation as an outstanding motivational and inspirational speaker, facilitator, resilience and leadership coach, champion of women in leadership and equality and diversity in its broadest sense.She was recently awarded the Breakthrough Speaker of the Year Award by the Professional Speakers Association of Australia.   Rabia has featured in many Australian, UK, South East Asian and Middle Eastern print, radio and television stories and interviews, now widely known around the world for her story and powerful messages. In 2014 she received a standing ovation from an audience of 1700 for her TEDx talk ‘Courage Under Fire’.

She is committed to giving back to her community and profession, and to this end Rabia serves as a Patron, Ambassador and Board Member of several not for profit and education-based organisations.

Rabia speaks English, French, Spanish and Arabic, has run the London marathon and walked one and a half marathons in Australia for charity, undertaken human rights and community aid work in the Middle East, South America, United Kingdom and Australia, and is the proud mother of young triplet boys, her biggest challenge yet!

A truly inspirational conversation that brought many insights for me personally about what it takes to do whats right in spite of being faced with our biggest fears.

A massive thank you to Rabia for being on the show and thank you for listening!

Until next week,

All the best,

Paris :)

www.parismitchell.com.au