AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): A British lawmaker has said she was fired from a ministerial job because her Muslim faith was making her Conservative colleagues “uncomfortable,” according to a report.
Nusrat Ghani, 49, Britain's first female Muslim minister, was sacked as transport minister in a reshuffle in 2020 in Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative government, The Sunday Times reported.
Ghani told the newspaper she was told by a whip - an enforcer of parliamentary discipline - that her “Muslimness was raised as an issue” at a meeting in 10 Downing Street, the headquarters of the government in London.
"I was told that at the reshuffle meeting in Downing Street that ‘Muslimness’ was raised as an ‘issue’, that my ‘Muslim women minister’ status was making colleagues uncomfortable," the paper quoted Ghani as saying.
"I will not pretend that this hasn’t shaken my faith in the party and I have at times seriously considered whether to continue as an MP (Member of Parliament),” she added.
She also said she was told “there were concerns ‘that I wasn’t loyal to the party as I didn’t do enough to defend the party against Islamophobia allegations.’”
“It was like being punched in the stomach,” said Ghani. “I felt humiliated and powerless.”
“When I challenged whether this was in any way acceptable and made clear there was little I could do about my identity, I had to listen to a monologue on how hard it was to define when people are being racist and that the party doesn’t have a problem and I needed to do more to defend it," she said.
“It was very clear to me that the whips and No 10 were holding me to a higher threshold of loyalty than others because of my background and faith,” said Ghani, who is vice chairwoman of the party’s decision-making 1922 Committee of backbenchers.
She said she kept quiet about the issue as she was warned that she would be “ostracised by colleagues” and her “career and reputation would be destroyed” otherwise.
Ghani said the feeling of “isolation and powerlessness after this episode would not leave me and I raised it several more times through official party channels and with some colleagues.”
“I will not pretend that this hasn’t shaken my faith in the party,” she said.
.........................
End/ 257
source : PressTV
Sunday
23 January 2022
5:20:01 AM
1221507
A British lawmaker has said she was fired from a ministerial job because her Muslim faith was making her Conservative colleagues “uncomfortable,” according to a report.