Bailie Roza Salih

Conselheira, Greater Pollok

Roza Salih came to this country as a Refugee and became one of the Glasgow Girls – now Scotland’s first ever refugee councillor – representing Glasgow.

Roza Salih was the Scottish National Party’s No1 candidate for the Glasgow region in the 2021 Scottish Parliamentary election.

Roza arrived in Scotland in 2001 with her family from Iraqi Kurdistan. In 2005, at the age of 15, she co-founded the Glasgow Girls with fellow pupils from Drumchapel High School. A film, documentary and a musical is made about their campaign to end child detention in the UK. Many families also received amnesty.

Roza is an effective activist with an extensive list of successful campaigns under her belt, from taking on the Border Agency and Home Office while still at school and campaigning against dawn raids and child detention.

Roza graduated With a BA (Hons) in Law and Politics from the University of Strathclyde. At University she was the Vice President for Diversity and Advocacy for the Students Association. She represented over 20,000 students and she was also elected to the National Union of students International Students Committee and the NUS UK Student trustee board. During this time she campaigned for asylum seekers scholarships and Strathclyde University become the first institution in Scotland to offer such scholarships. Roza has always been passionate advocate for equality and inclusion in education.

During the referendum in 2014 Roza actively encouraged students to register to vote. She also organised a debate at her university on the question.

Roza continued to tackle injustices such as unfair employment practices and the use of zero hours contracts as an elected young worker in the Trade Union. In 2017, Salih was appointed as a member of the STUC she was honoured by the Saltire Society as an Outstanding Woman of Scotland.

Since joining the party in 2015 she has been active in campaigning activity from running stalls to knocking on doors, commentating in the media to acting as a counting agent. Roza has held a number of roles both at branch level and nationally within the SNP. She was a council candidate at the local government elections in 2017. She has successfully played a leading role in coordinating successful campaigns for Chris Stephens MP in the 2017 and 2019 general elections, significantly improving the SNP’s majority in 2019.

Roza believes in a resilient Independent Scotland that includes green recovery, tenant rights, a national care service, public ownership and many other progressive policies.

Roza has been heavily involved campaigning for freedom of Abdullah Ocalan.

First at the University of Strathclyde, Ocalan was honoured with honorary life membership. Then from her trade union Unite the Union – She was the person who drafted the motion and spoke on it at national conference for UNITE to support the policy of freedom for Ocalan. Since then Unite has been campaigning for this outcome. Unite has over 6 million members and this is a great achievement for the Kurdish people in the UK. Roza is also the co-founder of Scottish solidarity with Kurdistan and has been campaigning in Scotland to raise awareness about Kurdish issues.

Roza is currently a Councillor for Greater Pollok – she was elected in May 2022. She used to work as office manager for Chris Stephens MP for Glasgow South West.

In 2022 Roza Salih named among world’s 100 top influential women for 2022.