The ‘ordinary’ Britons who were chosen to quiz Barack
THE BELFAST WOMEN’S
CAMPAIGNER: Cliona McCarney, 21, asked Mr Obama how his successor might help the peace process in Northern Ireland.
The politics and history student at Queen’s University in Belfast, said: ‘It probably wasn’t my most polished of questions, but I thought it was really important to highlight the role of US relations with Northern Ireland.’
Speaking to the BBC after the meeting in London, she added: ‘I thought his whole speech was very inspiring. Now I’m just wondering whether the whole thing was really real.’ Miss McCarney is helping to set up a professional network for women under 30 to ‘tackle the gender inequalities that exist in public and professional life’.
She is a former chairman of the Social Democratic and Labour Party’s youth organisation.
THE ‘NON-BINARY’ MUSLIM: Maria Munir came out as a ‘non-binary’ person – identifying as either male or female – at the event.
The politics and international relations student at York University had planned to ask a question about foreign policy, but had a changed of mind on the way
The 20-year-old Muslim, who also campaigns on equality, said: ‘Now I’m about to do something terrifying, which is I’m coming out to you as a non-binary person... which inevitably has cultural implications.’
Afterwards, the student said: ‘I’d never talked to my parents about it before because I didn’t want to make their lives difficult.
‘I was actually quite disappointed by Obama’s response. He told me to stick with it, but I think he should have taken the opportunity to stand in solidarity and say nonbinary people are being overlooked.’
JUNGLE VOLUNTEER: Student Khadija Najefi, 21, introduced President Obama to the audience. She is in her final year at King’s College, London.
She spent a year at the University of California, Berkeley, studying political science and peace and conflict studies and once volunteered at the Jungle migrant camp in Calais.
Miss Najefi attended the Q&A with her dentist father Saifudin Najefi, 63. She lives at her parents’ £500,000 house near Harrow, NorthWest London. She said: ‘I was terrified. I met him [Obama] and the ambassador backstage. I asked how he was, he did the same.’ THE IRAQI-BORN LABOUR COUNCILLOR: Ali Hashem’s family fled Saddam Hussein’s Iraq when he was a child and claimed political asylum in the UK. He is now a Labour councillor in west London.
The 27-year-old accountant is also trustee treasurer of Muslim Youth Helpline. Mr Hashem was praised by the President for his work helping other refugees. Mr Hashem said afterwards: ‘I was a bit embarrassed about being praised by Obama because I wish I could pay tribute to all the people who have helped me. I hope my mother has changed her mind about politics now.’ THE FIRST ETHNIC MINORITY PRESIDENT OF OXFORD’S CONSERVATIVE ASSOCIATION: Maryam Ahmed, 25, is an entrepreneur and a biomedical sciences PhD student at Oxford. She was the first in her family to go to university. ‘Obama name checking me in a speech was not something that I ever imagined would ever happen in my wildest dreams,’ she told the BBC.
‘He talked about what I’ve done to try to improve access to education, which is a subject very close to my heart. I want everyone to have the same opportunities to access to the best possible education, and at the moment, that’s not the case.’ She said she went home ‘crying happy tears’. THE DISABLED DOMESTIC VIOLENCE CAMPAIGNER: Rebecca Bunce, 29, is cofounder of the ICchange Campaign, which aims to combat violence against women. Her ‘fight’ was praised by Mr Obama. She said: ‘When the White House called, I thought it was a prank to be honest. It seemed completely ridiculous.’