Sara Khan

Biography

Dame Sara Khan was appointed by the Prime Minister as the government’s Independent Adviser for Social Cohesion and Resilience in March 2021. She was tasked with producing an independent Review with recommendations to build resilience against extremism, understand its impact, and better support its victims. The Khan Review, “Threats to Social Cohesion and Democratic Resilience”, was published in March 2024.

In January 2018, Sara was appointed the first Counter-Extremism Commissioner by the Home Secretary to lead the Commission for Countering Extremism (CCE). Tasked with carry out a strategic assessment of extremism across England and Wales and reviewing the government’s 2015 Counter-Extremism Strategy, her published reports include “Challenging Hateful Extremism 2019,” “How hateful extremists are exploiting the COVID-19 Pandemic 2020”. She also undertook a legal review on extremism legislation which resulted in the 2021 publication of the landmark report “Operating with Impunity”.

Before being appointed Counter-Extremism Commissioner, Sara was director of Inspire, an organisation she co-founded in 2008 to challenge gender inequality and Islamist extremism. In 2016 she co-authored the book ‘The Battle for British Islam: Reclaiming Muslim Identity from Extremism’.

Sara graduated from the University of Manchester with a Master’s degree in Pharmacy and went on to complete her MA in Understanding and Securing Human Rights at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London.

Sara was awarded a DBE in the 2022 New Years Honours List for services to human rights and counter-extremism.

Previous roles in government

  • Commissioner for Countering Extremism