Naima B. Robert

Na'ima B. Robert is a British Muslim author and editor whose work gives voice to the lives of young Muslims growing up in the West. Born in Leeds and raised in Zimbabwe, she is of Scottish heritage on her father's side and Zulu heritage on her mother's. She studied in London and embraced Islam at the age of twenty-one, an experience that shaped much of her later writing.

She entered publishing with From My Sisters' Lips, an autobiographical account weaving in the voices of other Muslim women and exploring the reality of Muslim womanhood in the West. As founding editor of the UK magazine SISTERS, she became closely attuned to the wide range of ways Muslim women interpret their tradition.

Robert is best known for fiction that places Muslim experience at its center. Her novel She Wore Red Trainers, a love story rooted in urban British Muslim culture, helped pioneer what came to be called the "halal romance" genre, depicting young people whose contact with the opposite sex is shaped by faith and community. She has also written children's books, including Ramadan Moon, and young adult novels such as Boy vs Girl and the award-winning Far from Home. Her motivational title Show Up offers encouragement to Muslim women. She divides her time between London and Cairo, where she lives with her husband and children.