At the age of seven, Imran Ahmad was severely traumatised when Michael Swallow pushed in front of him in the school lunch queue and secured the last plate of fish and chips – leaving Imran no ‘choice’ but a horrid egg flan.  He still feels angry about this.

Too lazy to get the grades he needed for medical school, he ended up at Stirling University in Scotland, studying Chemistry, learning about Islam and trying to impress women.  Ultimately he was quite successful in Chemistry and became quite knowledgeable about Islam as well, but he didn’t impress any women – despite having an Alfa Romeo and a microwave oven (quite possibly the only privately owned microwave on campus at that time).

In careers brochures, he saw people in business suits, travelling and having meetings.  (This looked like fun to him, but he wasn't sure what the people in suits actually did.)  He persuaded one of those big global companies to hire him and he ended up working all over the world. 

His book, Unimagined, was selected by three major newspapers (The Independent, The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald) in their ‘books of the year’ lists. 
Imran is a trustee of British Muslims for Secular Democracy, which opposes the imposition of theological or regressive cultural values on any individual, group or gender.

In The Program

Thursday 6th August   1.00pm - 1.30pm   Blue Marquee   SENIOR SECONDARY - Belonging: growing up Muslim in the West
Friday 7th August  10.15am - 11.15am   SCU Marquee   Belonging: how Muslims understand the West
Friday 7th August   8.00pm   Waywood Gallery Wish you were here
Saturday 8th August   8.00pm   Pandanus Room Writers cabaret
Sunday 9th August   10.15am -11.30am   Macquarie Marquee   Well it cracked me up: putting humour on the page
Sunday 9th August   2.15pm - 3.30pm   Macquarie Marquee   To market, to market: what it takes to sell a book