Aleesha is a 20 year old Muslim woman from the midlands. Her online profile describes her as outspoken. She is studying to be a journalist, and initially joined twitter – she says, to write about foreign affairs and politics. “I found myself interacting more and more with Islamophobe’s, and I realised it was deeply embedded in politics and the media, which is why I now advocate to end bigotry in politics”.
Having followed Aleesha on twitter for a couple of months, I have seen the relentless abuse she receives daily, usually from anonymous accounts, hiding behind false names and an emoji. “I think the cause of the abuse on here is that I’m an outspoken Muslim woman”, she told me, “And the far right hate to see Muslim women tweeting their opinions on politics. It doesn’t fit their agenda, that Muslim women are oppressed and have no voice”.
Aleesha told me that she hasn’t faced any overt racism in recent years, but says while she was growing up and going to school, where she was an obvious minority, she faced patronising racism such as being told she was the only ‘Paki’ her friends (at the time) liked.
She told me “I think most of the time there’s just ignorance, but in many cases there is pure hatred, and it’s quite frightening, not for me – I only have to deal with it online, but I worry for Muslim women who may have to encounter these sort of people in real life”.
In recent weeks, there has been criticism of some politicians who have been accused of raising more hatred with comments about post boxes, bank robbers and generalisation and accusations of violence by Muslim men. Aleesha says “The level of abuse has certainly increased, albeit I’m not sure if it’s due to my profile becoming bigger or if there is just more widespread Islamophobia”.
I asked the student if she feels that there is a hostile environment in the UK towards ethnic minorities. Despite the levels of daily abuse she endures, she replied generously “I don’t necessarily think there is a hostile environment. I don’t think a few bigot’s can define British citizens as a whole. Britain is happily Multicultural, democratic and multi-faith”.
When I asked Aleesha if she thought Muslim women suffered more abuse than Muslim men she said “Muslim women definitely suffer more abuse, statistically it’s true. It may be something to do with the fact that many of us are easily identifiable through religious dresses like the hijab. abusers usually pick on more vulnerable people like older Muslim women”.
In the face of some horrible, disgusting abuse I have never seen Aleesha retaliate, and the level of control and dignity she maintains is remarkable, some of the ignorant cowardly bigots, hiding behind their keyboards could learn a lot from her. The attacks aimed at her and her religion say far more about the morons typing them than they do about her.
Jason Holyhead 
Hate is bad of any kind