Hirra Khan Adeogun

This clip is from a series of 100 life history interviews with environmental campaigners in the UK, 1970-2020. It will feature in a book published by UCL Press in 2026. The full interview, along with the rest of the collection will be searchable on the British Library’s Sound and Moving Image catalogue and the interviews will be accessible onsite at the British Library in St Pancras from February 2026. For more information visit www.royalholloway.ac.uk/ohemQuotation:Hirra Khan Adeogun: I mean I’m still a practising Muslim and can’t be fatalistic about this. I can’t, or nihilistic about any of this. We’ve got this saying where even if it’s your last day on earth, still plant a tree.Barbara Brayshay: Right.Hirra Khan Adeogun: Because the idea being that someone will, you know, still do good even if you’re not going to be around to benefit.Barbara Brayshay: It’s very, I mean as part of the Muslim faith is there a deep connection with nature within the theology?Hirra Khan Adeogun: Absolutely. So you know humans are supposed to be stewards of the earth. And I feel that there’s been a resurgence of that understanding. And I can see people really noticing that. I think for a long time that’s been ignored but that’s slowly seeing a resurgence as people are seeing, kind of connecting the dots between what happens if you’re not a steward of the earth? What happens if all you do is extract from the earth? So yes and, and there is this idea about how, you know, we should be looking after- You know we have a responsibility to future generations. And so it’s not just steward of the earth, but steward of generations to come.British Library catalogue number: C2037/98 Project clip number: 244