[3] Silma Ihram was born Anne Frances Beaumont,[4] to a middle-class agnostic family,[5] and grew up in the suburb of Balgowlah, on Sydney's Northern Beaches.
[7] Ihram became a born-again Christian in 1968, and participated in missionary work with the Children's Special Service Mission (CSSM) in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
[5] In the early 1980s, Silma Ihram, then the proprietor of the Muslim Women's Shop and Centre, approached her old school, the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Sydney, looking to enrol her daughters.
[8] In 1983, Ihram and her then husband, Siddiq Buckley, set up the Al-Noori Muslim Primary School at Greenacre,[8] named after a Kuwaiti benefactor who had donated A$5,000.
[9] The school was forced to move nine times in four years, to such places as a house in Lakemba, a Hall in Canterbury, and a marquee in the Buckley's backyard.
[8] Ihram took her case to the Land and Environment Court, and after two actions to force Bankstown Council to give official approval, a primary school for 105 children was established in 1987.
Buckley identified the Muslim community itself as a stumbling block, describing it as "internally factionalised, ethnically diverse, politically impotent, intellectually moribund.
Al-Noori received positive attention when it was revealed that Ihram had encouraged her students to lobby for the release of an Australian pilot held hostage in Kuwait, who was the grandson of one of the school's elderly neighbours.
[8] In 2002, the NSW Government offered a suitable property at Guildford which was accepted, however a number of local residents complained of having a school there and the decision was revoked.
The temple is dedicated to Sai Baba of Shirdi, an Indian saint who a century ago made his home in a mosque in India and taught harmony between Muslims and Hindus.
[4] Subsequently, the school is now known as the Australian International Academy, Sydney, and Ihram now works as an Education Consultant and is Director of Diversity Skills Training and RTO in Auburn.
[17] Silma Ihram was elected to the Federal Executive of the Unity Party in 2002, and appeared on the New South Wales State Ballot for the Upper House.
[5] In 2007, Silma Ihram became one of the first two Muslim women to be aligned with a mainstream political party when she ran as an Australian Democrats candidate for the safe Labor seat of Auburn in the 2007 State election.
[2] She frequently partakes in forums and debates regarding issues pertaining to education, racism and Australian Muslims, and also often contributes opinion pieces and interviews with media sources.