Sahar Al Faifi is a Niqab wearing, skydiving activist and campaigner who has launched her bid to be a Plaid Cymru (Party of Wales) candidate in next year’s election.

The Welsh Parliament which is based in Cardiff is referred to as The Senned.

She said, “I am a molecular geneticist and campaigner. I will be standing for election and if successful I will be the first Muslim woman elected to the Senned, and the first Niqab wearing woman voted into power in Europe if not the world.”

Sahar is an organiser who works with diverse communities for social justice campaigns from the living wage to social care and welcoming refugees. She is a campaigner against racism and Islamophobia and an advocate for women's empowerment.

She views wearing the Niqab, which is the face veil worn by a small number of Muslim women, as an act of worship and devotion. She wrote in an article, “For me, the face-veil has multiple meanings and dimensions; it is not reduced to ‘a piece of cloth,’ nor is it exclusively a religious symbol.”

Veil wearers in the West are commonly thought to be silenced, oppressed and failing to integrate.

“I wish to fight these stereotypes as my Niqab is a symbol of resistance towards male domination of women due to which I enjoy the extreme sport of skydiving.

“I want to empower women to excel and challenge misogyny whether it is at work or in family life. I want Muslim women to be confident in their identity.”

If elected, she promises to serve all communities and campaign for more devolved powers for Wales with the dream of becoming independent. She also wants to work towards keeping young graduates from leaving Wales due to seeking employment.

She has faced a backlash from far right groups and has had to face institutional racism, smear campaigns and even death threats.

She said, “Islamophobia has been rising since Brexit, spurred by people in power such as Boris Johnson. The media is also playing its part in perpetuating institutional Islamophobia.”

She explains that she has not always been interested in party politics but wants to change the system as it is very hard for members of BAME communities and Muslims to be part of political life.

“National security is of utmost importance but laws such as Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 disproportionately target Muslims at ports and airports where they are asked all sorts of questions such as do you pray?

“Regarding the allegations of anti-Semitism I want to point out that they are untrue. There has been an organised effort by far-right groups and others to exclude me from running in elections.”

She became a full time anti-Islamophobic campaigner after an incident with a group of white men in suits at a station in Birmingham. She described the incident to the New Statesman: “One of them looked at me and said, ‘you’re a letterbox’, straight into my face.

“Sadly, this kind of verbal abuse has become part of my life, but I’m used to ‘terrorist’ or ‘bomber’, I’m used to things like ‘go back to your country’, but ‘letterbox’ – that was completely new to me.”

A week earlier it was Boris Johnson, the then foreign secretary, who coined the term when he wrote that women wearing the Niqab “look like letter boxes” and “bank robbers.” He has not apologised yet.

Sahar has been campaigning against hate and intolerance ever since.