Leading politician and campaigner Baroness Warsi urges students to “take a stand”
Leading politician, campaigner and businesswoman Sayeeda Warsi urged students to choose to “take a stand” as she was honoured for her work in public service by the University of Exeter.
The Rt Hon Baroness Baroness Warsi was Britain’s first Muslim Cabinet minister. She has worked to build businesses, drive start-ups, and empower communities and helped shape the Conservative Big Society policy.
During the ceremony in which she was given an honorary degree, Professor Rajani Naidoo, University of Exeter Vice-President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (People and Culture), said Baroness Warsi had: “Not merely just cracked the glass ceiling, she’s turned it into a window to which tomorrow’s leaders can see further”.
Baroness Warsi told students to “build a CV that tells a story which tells a story not just of what you did but who you are. Not just the positions you held but how those positions became a platform for you to create a better world. Not roles in which you were used but roles you used to fulfil a purpose.
“Do not be limited by self-doubt, do not undersell yourself, do not dim your light to fit in and make others feel comfortable. Or become like so many who break glass ceilings, an insecure overachiever.”
She warned students that taking a stand wouldn’t be easy, but: “these moments intended to diminish you will in the end elevate you both as a human being and a life lived with purpose. A journey travelled being true to your values, the principals which matter to you. Authentic and brave and challenging. The ABC of leadership.”
Baroness Warsi was appointed to the House of Lords as a life peer at the age of thirty-six, she served as Chairman of the Conservative Party, in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and as Minister for Faith and Communities. She has played a key role in campaigns against forced marriage, for racial justice and faith as a force for compassion.
She is advisor at the Bridge Institute, Georgetown University Washington D.C, a member of the International Advisory Board on FORB, University of Notre Dame and Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Bolton.
She is author of two books; The Enemy Within, A Tale of Muslim Britain and Muslims Don’t Matter.
She is a regular daytime TV presenter and news commentator. In 2024 she launched the award-winning Podcast ‘A Muslim and A Jew Go There’.
Baroness Warsi told students she wanted to be “direct” with them because they were graduating at a time when “the world needs brave and principled men and women”.
“Hard times can be a moment when a generation who they are, what they stand for and who they are and what they want their nations to be.”
“I stand here today accepting this degree because I chose and continue to choose to because I chose to take a stand. At times doing so by taking up positions and roles, paving the way for colleagues. At times choosing to have my hands at the levers of power to effect change. But at other times relinquishing positions to truly exercise power.”
