Sayyida Bano

Never Judge a Book By Its Cover!

As a motivational & inspirational speaker, coach & mentor Sayyida has spoken on several platforms over the years as a practicing Muslim female on various subjects such as identity, women, motherhood, education, spirituality, self-development, health & wellbeing and becoming empowered.

In a society in which the physical appearance plays such a fundamental role in how you perceive yourself and how others perceive you - Sayyida knows the challenges of looking and being different and learning to become comfortable with who you are irrespective of media and societal norms.

Over the years she has been involved in setting up a small charity called h.e.l.p that dealt with many community issues such as poverty, lack of community cohesion and disempowerment and later went on to establish a national charity called Planet Mercy with a larger team that allowed her to use her skills to help many others on a national level.

Sayyida's experiences spanning over 15 years have led her to the conclusion that the greatest untapped resource in society today exists within youth especially women aged between the ages of 15- 24 and how as a society we need to learn to develop, nourish and nurture this hence why she has chosen a path to help others achieve their higher potential and purpose in all areas of their life.

Although her speaking engagements started with her delivering talks on her personal struggles with the hijab (the Islamic head covering) and how she had to overcome many labels and stereotypes as a result of her decision to wear it – she also spoke about how this ‘piece of cloth’ – often seen as a symbol of oppression made her feel empowered and confident and developed within her a sense of determination and strength as she chose to stand for her right to express herself in the way she chooses as opposed to how media and society chooses for her to be.

Sayyida's aim is to deliver a strong and empowering message to women that how you choose to dress, which is often one of the biggest ways we as human beings like to express ourselves, should come from a confident place within us and not from a place outside of us. She aims to get this message across to young girls especially those who see the images on glossy magazines, social media and on billboards and feel that in order to fit in and feel accepted by others they have to look a certain way. She says it’s important to ‘Be happy, be confident and be authentic and the world will just have to accept you’.

As a busy home educating mother of 5, Sayyida knows the challenges of juggling so many things and how we often neglect or put ourselves last. However all this changed after she had to overcome the trauma of surgery and depression soon after delivering her son in January 2017. She began to appreciate the blessing of her own life and realised that we all have a greater purpose beyond our immediate roles and we can do justice to all of them when we choose to do things in a certain way. Since the experience she has started to empower many more women on a personal level to go above and beyond their current reality by developing their understanding of the Universal Principles of Success. This begins with taking back the control of the faculty of thinking so you can begin designing your own life as opposed to simply having life happen to you by default.