Leaked footage of Rayner reveals that Labour is pandering to prejudice
I dislike going to Pakistani weddings for two reasons. The first is that everyone (probably including some random bloke I’ve not spoken to in 20 years) wants to know when it’s my turn to get married.
The second is that they are highly likely to be segregated, with men in one room of the mosque and women in another.
Last September, despite my protests, I was persuaded to attend a wedding in Dewsbury because the bride’s mother was my mum’s friend.
I only found out it was segregated when I arrived at the venue. As the men and women filed into their separate rooms, I thought: ‘Why haven’t we done away with this outdated practice?’
A video circulating online shows the party’s deputy leader speaking to voters in her Ashton-under-Lyne seat and thanking them for getting her ‘over the line’ at the 2019 election
While I’ve attended plenty of Pakistani weddings that were mixed and great fun, there are still sections of our community where change is moving at a glacial speed.
But one doesn’t expect wider society, or our political leaders, to indulge this attitude.
That’s why I was so disappointed to see that video of Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner pleading for the support of Muslim voters in her Ashton-Under-Lyne constituency who are disappointed with Labour’s stance on Israel’s war with Hamas.
She tells them: ‘I know that people are angry about what’s happening in the Middle East… If me resigning as an MP now would bring a ceasefire, I would do it. If I could affect change.’
Like millions of people I am horrified to see the death toll of Palestinian women and children rise each week. Of course I would like to see an end to the war.
However, what concerns me the most, apart from her grovelling, is that Rayner seems to be speaking to an all-male audience, save for one white female standing near the door, presumably a member of her team. Where exactly are the Muslim women?
We see this time and time again. In many minority communities, men are the gatekeepers of any major decisions or political discussions. They are seen as the ‘authentic voice’ of their community when in fact they are just self-appointed guardians who have taken it upon themselves to determine what is and isn’t acceptable.
Only women who follow the norms set by the men are deemed worthy of respect, anyone who deviates from this path is seen to be dishonouring their community.
Muslim women living in countries, or communities, where gender segregation is enforced are severely held back in many aspects of life, from finding employment to participating in politics and decision-making.
It’s bad enough that many Muslim women are sidelined by their own communities. To have our politicians pander to these outdated rules adds insult to injury. It makes me particularly angry, because I know they wouldn’t allow this to happen in white communities.
Yet I can’t say I’m entirely surprised. Labour has come under fire on previous occasions for hosting gender-segregated events.
Back in 2015, Labour MPs and officials – including Angela Rayner – attended a gender-segregated rally in my hometown of Oldham, in Greater Manchester. Photos released from the meeting, hosted by Labour Friends of Bangladesh, clearly showed Muslim women and men seated on separate sides of the room.
It was the same story in Birmingham, with leading Labour figures, including Tom Watson, a future deputy leader of the party, attending a segregated meeting ahead of the upcoming General Election.
These events highlighted a serious problem in the party. In February, 2016, Shaista Gohir, the chair of the Muslim Women’s Network, wrote a letter to the then Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn calling for an inquiry into allegations that Muslim females were discriminated against and blocked from seeking office by male Labour councillors.
Gohir added: ‘It appears that, over decades, senior Labour politicians have deliberately turned a blind eye to the treatment of Muslim women because votes have been more important to them than women’s rights.’
The obstacles faced by Muslim women looking to stand for office were also highlighted by BBC2’s Newsnight the very same month.
Fozia Parveen claimed Muslim men from the Birmingham Labour Party had turned up at her parents’ home in a bid to intimidate her mother into preventing her from standing for selection, claiming that she was having an affair with a councillor.
Shazia Bashir, a party member in Peterborough, spoke of how Muslim men in her local party forced her to step aside in a local selection process because, despite being 31, she didn’t have her father’s consent and support to stand.
And what did the Labour Party do? It issued a mealy-mouthed statement claiming that its processes are ‘fair, democratic and robust’ and that it was committed to making sure that ‘candidates are representative of the communities they seek to represent’. The party signally failed to address the women’s specific complaints and experiences and it wasn’t long before their objections were forgotten.
And here we are, nearly a decade on, having the same conversation.
