IIUM debaters emerge champions

International Islamic University students win overall best speaker award in the Asian British Parliamentary debates.

Mubarrat Wassey, a student of economics, and Ameera Natasha Moore, a law student, from the International Islamic University (IIUM) bagged the Asian British Parliamentary Debating Championship that took place from October 7th to October 13 in Jakarta, Indonesia on the campus of Universitas Prasetiya Mulya.

According to a statement issued by IIUM, 80 teams from a number of Asian universities participated in the competition. IIUM students won the first and the second best speaker awards. Additionally, the second debate team comprising Ahmad Syarifuddin Ahmad Fakhri and Sara Abdul Rahim, received the top ten speakers award.

The final round had seen a face off among 4 teams from Singapore Management University (SMU), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Yale-NUS College (YNC) and IIUM team.

IIUM debaters concord the title that was held by Singapore's NTU last year to be the crowned champion this year.

This victory marks the second significant win for the duo Mubarrat and Ameera. In July, the two - accompanied by Sara Abdul Rahim - were the crowned winners of the 2016 Australasian Intervarsity Debating Championships (Australs). That win was and still remains a significant win, because it made IIUM the first Asian university to ever win the title in the 40 year history of the championship.

Mubarrat, an international student from Bangladesh, is ranked as Asia's best debater.

IIUM aims to win the World Universities Debating Championship scheduled to be held in Thessaloniki, Greece, in December.

Congratulations to the winners and we wish them the best of luck on the world stage.