Protests about the Woman’s Hour interview with Zara Mohammed ignore the fact that Emma Barnett’s no-nonsense style is unwavering
The new leader of a high-profile organisation gets grilled by a go-get-’em journalist. Not exactly an unusual event. But Emma Barnett’s interview of Zara Mohammed, the newly elected leader of the Muslim Council of
Britain (and its first female leader) on Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour has caused ripples.
A hundred public figures (including former Tory cabinet minister Sayeeda Warsi,
Labour MP Diane Abbott and union leader Jo Grady) signed an open letter to the
BBC deploring the “strikingly hostile” tone of the interview. “Most of Mohammed’s answers,” they note, “were interrupted, revealing an instinctive urge not to listen to the voice of a Muslim woman.” The interview was akin to the grilling of a politician “rather than authentically recognising and engaging in what this represented for
British Muslim women”.