Baroness Gohir on Naz Shah’s ‘Honoured’

High Court, 1998: Naz Shah and her sister Fozia protest against their mother’s conviction for murder | Image by: : PA Images / Alamy

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A fearless memoir of survival, Honoured is both painful and inspiring. Naz Shah recounts her life with unflinching honesty, a witness to her father’s violence towards her mother, enduring his abandonment, and being taken out of school aged 12 and sent to Pakistan. She shares her experiences of living in Pakistan, including only being allowed to return after being forced into marriage at 15.

Back in the UK, as education was no longer an option, she ends up working in a factory packing nappies. Just as adulthood seemed to offer some relief, she experienced more trauma. Her mother Zoora was arrested for killing the man Naz had believed to be a trusted uncle. Convicted and sentenced to 20 years, Zoora’s imprisonment shocked Naz. She had been unaware that he had been physically and sexually abusing her mother for many years. Naz writes with raw honesty about how, as a child, she had even questioned her mother’s character, not realising that Zoora had endured so much to protect her children, even sending Naz to Pakistan to protect her from being exploited too.

Through these memories, the weight of abuse and societal shame becomes clear. Her mother carried the blame, while those responsible were often protected by silence. Shah explores how honour, or izzat, shaped their lives: how shame silenced her mother, how single mothers were judged unfairly, and how coercive control – unrecognised at the time – governed women’s lives.

Honoured is not just a story of trauma  but a story of resilience, faith, activism, and triumph

She also reflects on her own lack of agency in her first marriage: “When I first went to Pakistan, there was a list of things I couldn’t do because I didn’t have a father. I was returning to the UK with the same lack of control, only now I belonged to a man who had power of veto over my life. My existence was once again defined by a man.”

Forced to grow up quickly, Naz recounts shouldering parental responsibility for her younger siblings while navigating a marriage she never wanted. She confronts her darkest moments with unflinching honesty, including her suicide attempts. Amid this turmoil, she campaigned relentlessly to reduce her mother’s prison sentence – a campaign she ultimately won. Early in her efforts, she sought support from then long-serving Labour MP Marsha Singh, never imagining that one day she would rise from hardship to occupy his seat as the MP for Bradford West.

Honoured is not just a story of trauma  but a story of resilience, faith, activism, and triumph. Naz’s Islamic faith provided a quiet anchor through her hardships, and her grit propelled her to a remarkable political victory, defeating George Galloway in the 2015 general election despite his aggressive campaigning. The book begins on the eve of that election, marking the start of a new chapter in her life.

Naz’s experiences continue to fuel her politics. The same fire that helped her survive childhood drives her advocacy for vulnerable women, children, and families, especially those who, like her, feel abandoned or unheard. She confronts uncomfortable truths about abuse, honour culture, and the justice system, challenging readers to face these realities. Ultimately, Honoured is a story of transformation – showing how one life, forged in hardship, can ignite change for countless others.

Baroness Gohir is a Crossbench peer

Honoured: Survival, Strength and My Path to Politics

By: Naz Shah

Publisher: W&N