UK press regulation rejected a complaint over Islamophobic hijab remarks.
Evidence
More recently, the Channel 4 newsreader Fatima Manji (who wears a hijab) was the subject of an inflammatory attack by Kelvin MacKenzie in The Sun in which he suggested that it was not appropriate for her to be presenting the news following the terrorist attacks in Nice in 2016. He asked, ‘Was it done to stick one in the eye of the ordinary viewer who looks at the hijab as a sign of the slavery of Muslim women by a male-dominated and clearly violent religion?’ In response, Manji, supported by Channel 4, complained to the press regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), suggesting that ‘The purpose of the article appeared to be to incite hatred against Muslims in general, Muslim women in particular, and me.’ IPSO, however, rejected the complaint against the Sun columnist, thereby arguably legitimating the association between wearing a hijab and support for terrorism (Greenslade 2016). — A. Hussain, N. Meer, Framing Muslim Integration, 564
Categorization
- ADDENDUM: Supports the ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ article by showing that the contemporary European ‘immodest dress’ moral panic persists and acquires a security/extremism dimension, with the hijab-as-slavery framing echoing colonial tropes.
- XREF: Connects to debates on how ‘neutral’ press regulation can tacitly endorse discriminatory framings. — connects to: IPSO rejection legitimated the media association of hijab with terrorism. — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia: Still a Challenge for Us…, 559
Related
Broader Connections
- IPSO rejection legitimated the media association of hijab with terrorism.
#expands(0.85) — Runnymede Trust (ed. Farah Elahi & Omar Khan), Islamophobia, 559