Skip to main content Skip to main navigation

Oral History Interview with Salima Malik Ahmed

Scope and Contents

In this interview, Salima Malik Ahmed discusses growing up in Wah Cantonment, Pakistan, including her family, their Ahmadiyya Muslim faith, and her arranged marriage to her husband. She expands on their immigration to the United States, her memories of the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens, and raising her children in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn. She also speaks at length about her involvement with Masjid Bait Ul Tahir, an Ahmadiyya mosque in Bensonhurst. Interview conducted by Zaheer Ali.

Biographical / Historical

Salima Malik Ahmed was born in 1959 in Wah Cantonment, Pakistan. She worked as a teacher on a nearby Air Force base until marrying her husband in 1985. She immigrated to the United States shortly after their marriage, spending a few years in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens before eventually settling in the Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn. She raised her children in the Ahmadiyya community centered around the nearby Masjid Bait ul Tahir, where she also taught religious classes.

Conditions Governing Access

This interview can be accessed onsite at the Center for Brooklyn History's Othmer Library and online at the Oral History Portal.

Center for Brooklyn History
128 Pierrepont Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201