37 Facts About Nazir Afzal

Nazir Afzal was born on 1 October 1962 and is a British solicitor and former prosecutor within the Crown Prosecution Service.

Nazir Afzal was appointed chancellor of the University of Manchester in 2022, succeeding Lemn Sissay on August 1.

Nazir Afzal was born in Birmingham, his parents having emigrated from Pakistan.

Nazir Afzal grew up as one of seven siblings in a two-up two-down in Small Heath.

Nazir Afzal was bullied and racially abused throughout his childhood; those around him saw no point in reporting the incidents to the police.

Nazir Afzal obtained his law degree from the University of Birmingham before attending The College of Law in Guildford, where he developed his interest in criminal law.

Nazir Afzal worked as a solicitor in Birmingham from 1988 until moving to London in 1991, where he became a Crown Prosecutor.

Nazir Afzal successfully prosecuted them for committing an indecent act and for smoking where not permitted to do so.

When he was promoted and moved to Manchester in 2011 he faced several high-profile cases, one involving a man killed while committing an aggravated burglary in which Nazir Afzal decided that the householder acted in reasonable self-defence.

Nazir Afzal's team were responsible for the swift prosecution of that summer's looters, a judicial response described by an academic as "shock and awe".

Nazir Afzal thought that such traditional attitudes would die out with the older immigrant generation, but by 2008, by which time he was the CPS's lead on honour-based violence, he realised that young men held the same controlling beliefs about "family honour" and "purity", and that education needed to start with primary school children to challenge this.

Nazir Afzal attributed the attacks to "evil men", saying that the key driver was "male power".

Nazir Afzal used his position to stress that abusers were found in all communities, and that the vast majority of paedophiles in Britain are white.

Nazir Afzal promised to turn the attention of the CPS to forced marriage in the Traveller community, which he claimed was rife.

In March 2015, it was reported that Nazir Afzal was leaving the CPS.

Once he left the CPS, Nazir Afzal began to speak even more widely, and found a large audience for his messages, that violence against women infects all communities, that authorities are still unwilling to believe the victims, and that there is a deficit of leadership in the British Muslim community.

Nazir Afzal explained that strategies to target radicalisation had to appeal more to young people and called for more community-led efforts to combat the forces of radicalisation.

Nazir Afzal became chief executive of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners in 2016.

Nazir Afzal resigned from this post, which restricted his political expression, immediately after the Manchester Arena bombing in May 2017 in order to express his views on the topical BBC television programme Question Time.

Nazir Afzal is Honorary Lecturer in law at University of Manchester and Pro-Chancellor at Brunel University, London.

In December 2018, Nazir Afzal contacted the police in relation to English Defence League founder Tommy Robinson's interview with the 16-year-old alleged perpetrator of assaults on Syrian refugees at Almondbury Community School.

Nazir Afzal stated that posting material naming the boy after he had been charged was an unlawful breach of reporting restrictions.

In 2019, Parkfield Community School in Birmingham asked Nazir Afzal to mediate the issue on LGBT inclusive education.

Nazir Afzal stated that he feared some parents were being manipulated by outsiders with a different agenda.

Nazir Afzal has been an outspoken critic of government cuts to the Crown Prosecution Service and Ministry of Justice.

Nazir Afzal stated that a tipping point had been reached in 2015: cuts would lead to a reduction in the number of senior staff, which would force the junior staff members to do more and more with less resources while being under increasing scrutiny.

Nazir Afzal claimed the cuts were one of the reasons that he decided to leave the CPS.

In 2019 Nazir Afzal revealed that he had met with Boris Johnson in 2016, before he was prime minister.

Nazir Afzal warned Johnson that government cutbacks meant that incarcerated terrorists were being released early; however, these individuals remained radicalised and thus were likely to commit acts of terror again.

Nazir Afzal urged Johnson to increased funding for efforts to de-radicalise these prisoners, but he was told that such funding would not be available.

Nazir Afzal revealed the conversation after Johnson, then as Prime Minister, criticized the policy of early release for terrorists in August 2019.

Nazir Afzal was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2005 New Year Honours.

Nazir Afzal was appointed a Fellow of the University of Central Lancashire in 2013 for "raising public awareness of domestic violence, forced marriage and 'honour' based crimes".

In January 2013, Nazir Afzal was awarded the Services to Law award at the British Muslim Awards.

Nazir Afzal was named Legal Personality of the Year by the Society of Asian Lawyers.

Nazir Afzal received honorary doctorates in Law from the University of Birmingham in 2014, from the University of Manchester in 2017 and the University of Leicester in 2019.

In May 2020, Nazir Afzal's brother died due to COVID-19, and UK rules meant Nazir Afzal was unable to go to the funeral.