Hameeda Hussani and Meriam Altaf, who study at Anglia Ruskin University, have already beaten a team from the University of East Anglia in the UK Law Students Association National Moot Competition, and are now preparing for the second round in January.
Hameeda, who is now 22, left Kabul as a 13-year-old. As a girl growing up in Afghanistan, she had never attended school and arrived in the UK unable to speak any English.
Hameeda’s family settled in Peterborough, where she enrolled at Stanground Academy School, and is now a third year Law LLB student at Anglia Ruskin in Cambridge.
Meriam arrived in the UK aged 16 to attend Fyling Hall School in Robin Hood’s Bay, North Yorkshire. Originally from Odessa in Ukraine, the 21-year-old is also a third year Law LLB student, and is representing Anglia Ruskin in the competition for the second time.
Meriam was part of the Anglia Ruskin team that beat King’s College London in the first round of the competition last year. This year she is hoping to go all the way to the final, as well as participate with Hameeda in the National Dublin Moot Competition in February.
Meriam said: “The case we won against UEA was focusing on the Immigration Act 2014 and human rights law. We hadn’t studied immigration law before so to win the case, which was judged by a solicitor from Mills & Reeve, was really satisfying.”
Hameeda said: “Studying Law at Anglia Ruskin has been a great experience and has opened my eyes to the kind of career I would love to pursue. My dream is to get a pupillage and a place at the bar, so taking part in mooting competitions is ideal preparation for that.”
Meriam and Hameeda are being helped in their preparations by fellow student Sarah-Jane Hounsell, the Anglia Law Society President. All three third year students hope to pursue careers as barristers and are applying to Inns of Court.
Tom Serby, module leader for Civil Litigation at Anglia Ruskin and LLM course leader, said: “We are incredibly proud of their achievements. Teaching students like Meriam and Hameeda is what makes our jobs so worthwhile.”
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For more press information please contact:
Jon Green on t: 01245 68 4717, e: jon.green@anglia.ac.uk
Jamie Forsyth on t: 01245 68 4716, e: jamie.forsyth@anglia.ac.uk
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