About me
I grew up in London. In a flat. No garden, no reserves, no access to “stereotypical representations of nature”, and definitely no binoculars. But I loved nature with all my heart. I loved the woodlice crawling from the cracks in the floor and walls, I loved the moths in the bathroom attracted by moisture, I loved the bees floating in through the dusty windows, and I loved the scurrying little creatures backlit by the street lights and car headlights.
My life has been filled with twists and turns. From my beginnings in London, my home-schooled life turning upside down as it tried to squash itself into the world of public school, my strict Muslim upbringing clashing with the fierce punk rock attitudes I came to be inspired by, to my understanding of myself and my own identity as I grew up and came out. And came out again. And again.
You see…the truth is I just want to look at bugs, write my words, and maybe doodle occasionally. But the system I exist within - the same systems we all do to an extent - are not so kind to those who do not conform, and through this I have understood that the fact I am so obviously intersectional - in the ways I present myself, and wish to live - is the reason I am even in the positions you see me in now.
I am fighting to be that kid again…the one who just wants to look at bugs and write and tell stories…and my fight has led me to develop my voice, my writing, my thinking…everything. Just to be heard and to change what I believe to be a highly unsustainable, toxic system of hierarchy.
Through the identities I intersect, I try to understand and unlearn the systemic toxicity that has plagued us for generations, and I try to teach and guide in a manner that will seed the “questioning of normality” in everyone I can, whilst also learning and thriving from others perspectives and knowledge.
Jasmine Isa Qureshi (They/She) is a marine biologist, activist, writer and freelance journalist whose work includes published pieces in BBC Wildlife, Gaytimes, and the Metro. She writes about ecology, conservation, diversity, trans and queer issues, muslim identity, Islamophobia, philosophical thought, climate change and politics.
Qureshi has been published as a poet in magazines, and has performed sets for various venues including The London Natural History Museum, RALLY festival, Tara Theatre in London, on subjects of nature and identity.
Her work as a writer and a speaker has also led her to curate and give workshops, seminars and talks, on subjects she has written about, to new understandings of queer thought and ecological studies, at science festivals and many other venues; including Cheltenham Science Festival, Edinburgh Science Festival, the University of Bristol, Harper Adams University, the University of Nottingham, Shambala Music Festival, and for the organisation/collective Writing Our Legacy.
Jasmine also holds a number of positions in wildlife NGO’s, as an advisor for RSPB England, and Ambassador for the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.
Most recently she has been published in GATHERING, a collection of essays by women of colour in nature, debuting in 2024 via 404Ink. Jasmine's essay is an overview of queerness in nature, and what we can learn from this. Her most recent online essay - for Radicle newsletter - is titled; “Unlearning Our Bias: Anthropocentrism in Ecology and Nature”, and delves into the centering of human perspective in biological understanding, and how it is the source of most of our systemic toxicity in the modern age.
Qureshi has also worked as a researcher for a number of film production companies on natural history programmes, such as BBC Natural History Unit, Wild Space Productions, Sound Off Films, etc. and has produced their own wildlife films in the past. They have worked as a researcher for the Mindfulness Initiative on Climate Youth Resilience, mapping the uses and non-uses of contemplative practices as a support mechanism for global youth in the face of climate change, and currently work as the Social Media Lead / Coordinator for grassroots collective WildCard (working with the team to increase engagement and understanding of rewilding campaigns/projects in the UK).
They are the founder of Soil To Sky, a grassroots think-tank/organisation that seeks to better understand and teach ecology via the centring of trans and queer people of a global majority in nature/natural history.
As a wildlife/nature media presenter they have collaborated with the team behind BBC Springwatch, working with them to narrate a film on the Live YouTube Wildlife show, ‘8 Out of 10 Bats’, have worked with NatureCast (Edinburgh Science Festival), and VOX Media + Freeborne Impact (producing a film in collaboration with Attitude magazine on Ocean Conservation and ethical fashion).
“True intersectional learning must disrupt, take apart and dissect the system by which we learn and exist at the moment, and by doing that we then have to relearn through the cultural dialogues, and through the intersectional understanding,
and through the learned behavior’s and lived experience of indigenous people, people of colour, communities of minority, communities of grassroots organizations and social organizations.”
