LONDON: More than 100 public figures — including politicians, journalists and academics — have signed an open letter to the BBC criticizing a “disappointing and strikingly hostile” interview with the first female secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB).
Zara Mohammed, 29, was repeatedly asked how many female imams there were in Britain by Emma Barnett, presenter of the BBC Radio 4 program “Woman’s Hour,” during an interview on Feb. 4.
The letter called on the BBC to commit to programs ensuring diverse production and editorial teams, and to issue a statement recommitting to engaging with Muslim women and those from historically marginalized communities in good faith.
It said “the interview appeared intent on re-enforcing damaging and prejudicial tropes about Islam and Muslim women,” and the tone of the interview “must be seriously assessed.”
Mohammed, a Glaswegian consultant, became the first woman to lead the MCB, as well as its youngest.
“Despite Mohammed’s repeated claims that religious adjudication was not within the parameters of her role leading a civil society organization, Barnett asked the question about female imams four times, each time interrupting Mohammed’s answer,” the letter stated.
“The framing of the interview and clipping up of the ‘female imam’ segment for social media mirrored the style and tone of an accountability interview with a politician, rather than authentically recognizing and engaging in what this represented for British Muslim women.”
The BBC allegedly removed the original tweet with a clip of Mohammed’s interview after receiving complaints.
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BBC criticized for ‘strikingly hostile’ interview with Muslim female leader
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BBC criticized for ‘strikingly hostile’ interview with Muslim female leader
- Over 100 public figures have written to the broadcaster in protest
- Zara Mohammed is the first female head of the Muslim Council of Britain
Ivory Coast president seeks parliament majority in election
ABIDJAN: Ivory Coast is holding legislative elections on Saturday, two months after 83-year-old Alassane Tuatara won a presidential ballot that extended his 14-year rule.
Polling stations in the main city, Abidjan, opened an hour late in torrential rain.
At Notre Dame college in the Plateau district, voters queued in a hall below a huge portrait of Felix Houphouet-Boigny, the West African nation’s founding president.
“I don’t feel represented in the national assembly,” said 21-year-old Assi Gilles Darus Aka. “I am here to elect my candidate, so that he can bring forward projects for the professional insertion of students,” Aka told AFP.
Ouattara’s RHDP party has a majority in the 255 seat national assembly. Its candidates in the new poll include Prime Minister Robert Beugre Mambe and Tene Birahima Ouattara, a brother of the president and defense minister.
In October, Ouattara won a fourth term with nearly 90 percent of votes cast in an election in which most opposition figures were excluded. Eleven people died in violence around the election and dozens of opposition supporters were detained, including one deputy.
The PPA-CI party of former president Laurent Gbagbo, who was banned from the presidential vote because of a criminal conviction, boycotted the legislative election. About 20 members of his party are standing however.
The PDCI of Tidjane Thiam, another presidential candidate excluded from the October vote, put up candidates for Saturday’s election. One of them, party spokesman Soumaila Bredoumy, was detained in November accused of “terrorism” and “plotting against state authority.”
Polling stations in the main city, Abidjan, opened an hour late in torrential rain.
At Notre Dame college in the Plateau district, voters queued in a hall below a huge portrait of Felix Houphouet-Boigny, the West African nation’s founding president.
“I don’t feel represented in the national assembly,” said 21-year-old Assi Gilles Darus Aka. “I am here to elect my candidate, so that he can bring forward projects for the professional insertion of students,” Aka told AFP.
Ouattara’s RHDP party has a majority in the 255 seat national assembly. Its candidates in the new poll include Prime Minister Robert Beugre Mambe and Tene Birahima Ouattara, a brother of the president and defense minister.
In October, Ouattara won a fourth term with nearly 90 percent of votes cast in an election in which most opposition figures were excluded. Eleven people died in violence around the election and dozens of opposition supporters were detained, including one deputy.
The PPA-CI party of former president Laurent Gbagbo, who was banned from the presidential vote because of a criminal conviction, boycotted the legislative election. About 20 members of his party are standing however.
The PDCI of Tidjane Thiam, another presidential candidate excluded from the October vote, put up candidates for Saturday’s election. One of them, party spokesman Soumaila Bredoumy, was detained in November accused of “terrorism” and “plotting against state authority.”
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