Mehri Niknam was born and brought up in Iran. Her academic field is Comparative Medieval Jewish-Muslim History, on which she has lectured at several universities. She has been a Jewish-Muslim consultant for over 15 years and considers her work a vocation.

In 2005, she was awarded the MBE for her contributions to Muslim-Jewish Relations in Britain. In the same year she was made an Honorary Fellow at Leo Baeck College-Centre for Jewish Education for her services to the College"s Jewish-Muslim Interfaith Relations. She is a member of Imams and Rabbis Committee and Academics & Theologians Roundtable at the department of Communities and Local Government and a regular contributor to the BBC World Service.