‘Adopting hens is one way that I try to live smaller, slower and within the planet’s means.’

Sarah Joseph, editor and CEO of Muslim lifestyle brand company emel Media, is one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world according to a list compiled by Georgetown University and the Royal Jordanian Strategic Studies Centre.

In 2004 she was awarded an OBE for her services to interfaith dialogue and the promotion of women’s rights. Sarah has also lectured globally on Islam for over 25 years and is a regular speaker on BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show’s ‘Pause for Thought’ segment.

On top of that she’s also mum to three children and a flock of hens from the BHWT, having adopted chickens from us since 2007. We managed to grab a spot in Sarah’s busy schedule to ask her about her work, her beliefs and, of course, her hens…

How does it feel to be recognised as one of the world’s most influential Muslims? What does it mean to you?

Awards and lists don’t mean a great deal to me on a personal basis. They have never formed part of why I do what I do. However, if they help shine a light on the work that I do, and the causes that I care about, then I don’t mind them.

You grew up in a model agency before converting to Islam aged 16, what inspired that transition?

My mother, Valerie Askew, was a reluctant model agent. She needed a job, and was in a particular place, at a particular time, but she was grounded by the fact that she was a single mother with five children.

I was literally brought up in the agency from three weeks old, and it taught me a lot. When everyone around you is beautiful, their external appearance and the glamour, become irrelevant. You find other ways of working them out. As a child, I would watch and assess the models. The superficial became irrelevant to me, and I would strive to go deeper. According to my mother, I had a deep spiritual belief even when I was tiny, and that has formed a huge part of my life.

Social justice and a belief in the Divine have been the two wings of my being my entire life, and Islam manages to bring those two things together in a coherent way for me. It may not be very fashionable to hold such beliefs, but then I grew up amidst the very fashionable, and was never enamoured by that world!

Almost 20 years ago, you founded emel Media Group, because of a powerful desire to say what Muslims stood for, and what they could contribute as opposed to what they were against. Is your desire to provide that platform as strong now as it was then – is the need still as great, or even greater?

After 9/11 I spent a solid year of my life on the road. I was on almost every media outlet imaginable. I was giving talks in town halls and civic centres, church halls and synagogues, universities, and schools.

I would explain that Islam was anti-violence, anti-extremism, anti-terrorism. By the end of that year, I was physically and emotionally exhausted. You cannot keep defining yourself according to an “anti”.

My husband and I felt driven to say what Islam was for: for justice, for beauty, for other human beings, for the planet. emel was about articulating that, and so we covered everything from food to fashion, technology to travel, gardening to politics, faith to interior design. We had four Cs: Confident people are better able to Contribute to the Common good and Connect to each other.

Your passion is to get people to recognise their shared humanity, and our common responsibility to this Earth, do you see adopting commercial hens as part and parcel of this philosophy?

What my own life has taught me is that every faith/race/nationality has caring kind compassionate people, and every faith/race/ nationality has bullies and oppressors. What we all share is this one planet, and unless we recognise that we have a collective responsibility to this planet we are all going to be in trouble.

I wrote my first essay on the environment back in the early 1980s. The issues I was reflecting on as a young teenager are the issues we are facing today, but worse.

Back then it was looking at the predictions that would happen unless we acted, now we are faced with the consequences of 40 years of global political apathy.

Adopting commercial hens is one way that I try to live smaller, live slower, live within the planet’s means. I am far from perfect in my actions, but if we all strive to do our bit to consume less, to reuse more, and to be more conscious about all our choices, I think we would go some way to solving the world’s problems.

What have been some of your best experiences of keeping hens over the past 15 years?

From the age of seven, my heart knew that I wanted to keep chickens! It may well have been episodes of The Good Life which did it!

My children were small when we rehomed our first BHWT hens. When we went to pick them up, we were all pretty distressed to see 320 hens, balding, with enlarged colourless combs, grouped together, looking bewildered.

Our son chose a hen that had only one eye, reasoning that very few people would want her. She was named Captain Cyclops, for obvious reasons, but was known as CC for short.

Our eldest daughter was matter of fact, taking any hen as they all needed a home. Our youngest daughter, then just seven, was really upset though, “I don’t think I can do this”, she sobbed. The volunteers were wonderful and found her a hen who looked a little bit healthier – and she was named Babs. She was one of the funniest and strongest hens we have ever had.

Our most recent rehoming of four hens with BHWT has been a wonderful experience. To see them go from balding, fearful and cautious creatures, to doing their chicken dance, scratching away, and dustbathing in the sun is such a joyful experience.

Why do you love having hens as pets so much?

When I finish work, I like to go to the back of the garden and just sit and watch them. I find it incredibly soothing and calming. The hens we have rehomed from BHWT have been some of the friendliest hens we have ever had.

On a practical note, we garden organically, and are always trying to look at how we can reduce our impact on the earth. Hens help keep a closed circle system within a garden. They eat the weeds and some of the vegetable peelings. Their poop and their bedding go into the compost, which in turn nourishes the soil. They also can help keep down certain bugs in the garden.

Eggs are an added bonus. The eggs decrease transportation costs, and we know exactly where our eggs are from, and how the chickens have been treated. One of my favourite things is to gather up some spinach leaves, herbs, onion leaves, and some eggs, and to cook myself an omelette. It’s rather idyllic! Certainly a taste of the good life… and all thanks to my adorable, feathered friends.