A regular contributor to Radio 4’s ‘Thought for the Day’, Mona Siddiqui is one of Britain’s most high-profile Muslim academics. Born in Karachi, Siddiqui grew up in Huddersfield before moving to Scotland twenty years ago when she married. Siddiqui is currently professor of Islamic and Interreligious Studies at the University of Edinburgh. She was previously director of the University of Glasgow’s Centre for the Study of Islam, which she founded in 1997. This striking portrait shows Siddiqui as both a strong woman and a caring mother and wife who wants to instil in her children a sense of themselves as global citizens. It is part of a series by photographer Verena Jaekel who was commissioned to produce portraits of Scots of Pakistani heritage for the re-opening of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2011.