Queensland Young of the Year, A Sudanese woman
Sudan Events
Yassmine Medhat Abdel Majeed is a Sudanese-Australian writer and mechanical engineer, working in the UK since 2017.
She is also known in Australia for media engagements regarding Sharia law and Anzac Day.
Yassmine Abdel Majeed was born in Khartoum, Sudan. When she turned 18, she moved with her parents to Brisbane, Australia, in late 1992. This was after the 1989 Sudanese coup in which the Islamist army overthrew the democratically elected government and issued strict laws, such as controlling women’s clothing and requiring Arabic to be spoken and taught in universities. Yassmine Abdel Majeed holds Australian and Sudanese citizenship.
Yassmin attended primary school at the Islamic College of Brisbane and the Independent Christian School (John Bull College), where there was no policy against wearing the hijab. She later studied mechanical engineering at the University of Queensland.
As a high school student in 2007, Abdelmajid and two others founded the group Youth Without Borders in Australia. In 2007, she was named Young Australian Muslim of the Year 2007. She has also been involved in other groups and committees, continuing as Chair of Youth Without Borders until 2016.
In 2011, Yassmine graduated with a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering with First Class Honors from the University of Queensland. From 2012 to 2016 I worked in multinational engineering companies in Australia.
After being named Queensland Young Australian of the Year (2015), Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop appointed her to the Council on Australian-Arab Relations. In late 2016, she was sent to several Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt and Sudan, to promote Australia. Yassmine left the Council on Australian-Arab Relations in 2017.
In December 2014, she participated in a 14-Minute TED Talks in Brisbane where she gave a talk entitled (What Does a Head Cover Mean to Me?), which was chosen as one of the top ten ideas for TED 2015.
In 2018, Yassmine presented six six-minute episodes of the Islamic headwear fashion show. In April of the same year, she made her debut in the television series Homecoming in Queens, which was produced in her Australian hometown of Brisbane, about the lives of two young women as they deal with life after a major illness.
In 2012 she published a number of articles as well as a memoir and a young adult novel.
