Dear BBC,

On 4 February 2021, Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour invited Zara Mohammed on the programme. She recently made British history by becoming the first woman and youngest person to be elected to lead the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), a national umbrella body representing over 500 Muslim organisations. Mohammed’s appointment was a significant moment for many British Muslim women and so appearing on Woman’s Hour four days into her role was fitting. In this context, the tone of the interview was disappointing and strikingly hostile.

The host, Emma Barnett, persistently asked, ‘How many female imams are there in Britain?’. When Mohammed said she didn’t know and queried what was meant by the broad religious term, Barnett replied ‘You tell me’, citing the rise of female priests and rabbis. She then continued, ‘it’s quite striking you can’t answer that question’. Despite Mohammed’s repeated claims that religious adjudication was not within the parameters of her role leading a civil society organisation, Barnett asked the question about female imams four times, each time interrupting Mohammed’s answer. 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 recognising and engaging in what this represented for British Muslim women. Moreover, the false equivalence between imams with rabbis and priests in a religion that has no clergy reflected a basic lack of religious literacy needed for authentic engagement with British Muslim communities.

The interview continued onto what Mohammed would do about the exclusion of some Muslim women from society, whether the MCB needs to reform and the relationship between Islam and other religions. Again, most of Mohammed’s answers were interrupted, revealing an instinctive urge not to listen to the voice of a Muslim woman but to jump in. Despite the BBC having a commitment to due impartiality and fairness, the line of questioning fell into a well-worn narrative of presuming Muslim women are inherently disenfranchised due to the parameters of a faith that supposedly has not reformed. What might have been an opportunity to inform the wider audience about what is possible in Muslim communities, the interview appeared intent on re-enforcing damaging and prejudicial tropes about Islam and Muslim women.

The numerous complaints online and in private to the BBC has led to Woman’s Hour removing the original tweet, stating that in retrospect ‘the clip should have included more of the radio interview to provide full context of the discussion’. Whilst the removal of the clip is welcome, this response is insufficient. The tone and framing of the entire interview must be seriously assessed. There is an important difference between a style of questioning that undermines a woman’s voice and one that holds her to account.

It is perhaps no coincidence that this comes against a background where Muslim voices are underrepresented at every level within the BBC. By its own admission in the BBC’s latest Annual Report, there are virtually no Muslims working at BBC Studios (TV and Radio Production), which includes the production of Woman’s Hour, at either staff or leadership levels. An asterisk in the report indicates a number so minuscule it cannot be reflected in a percentage over 0.2%. Similarly, there are no significant numbers of Muslims in commissioning roles or in leadership positions within News and Current Affairs. This lack of representation within the institution, especially at leadership levels, reveals a failure in implementing the BBC’s values to have an organisation that reflects its audiences.

The lack of representation within programming, such as Woman’s Hour, means that crucial insights in engaging with and reporting on Muslim communities are missed. The data on almost 5000 episodes of Woman’s Hour broadcasts over the last 20 years indicates that less than 300 guests (2.4%) have been Muslim women and many of these have not been British. Although the trend had been increasing steadily, since 2016 the representation of Muslim women began to trend down again. However, it is important to note that numbers alone do not paint a complete picture: what is pertinent is the quality of representation.

We, the undersigned, request the following:
- A public statement recommitting to engaging with Muslim women and those from historically marginalised communities in good faith,
- A commitment to recruiting Muslims in leadership and commissioning roles or developing pathways for those in non-leadership positions to reach these roles,
- A commitment to programmes ensuring diverse production and editorial teams.

Yours Sincerely,
Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Writer and broadcaster
Mariam Khan, Writer

Note: this letter has now been published in full on gal-dem (link below), but you can still add your name for the record.
https://gal-dem.com/open-letter-to-the-bbc-on-zara-mohammed-mistreatment-on-womans-hour/