A row broke out in a council chamber after a female councillor was heckled during a meeting about violence against women.
At a Bradford Council meeting earlier this month, the leading Labour group tabled a motion calling for more to be done on the issue of violence against women.
Tabling the motion, Councillor Kamran Hussain (Labour, Toller) said tackling the issue of violence against women was a priority for Bradford Council.
He said in the Bradford district, one in four women have experienced gender-based violence.
The row broke out at Bradford City Hall
Wikimedia/Bradford Modern Gov
When Conservative Councillor Falak Ahmed (Bingley Rural) spoke on the topic she mentioned the grooming that was carried out by some men of her same Pakistani heritage.
She stated: “In some communities there is a strong emphasis on family honour, and that can result in harmful practices such as discrimination and gender based violence. Women face societal pressure to conform to specific roles – prioritising family obligations over personal aspirations. One issue that arises from these negative things is sexual grooming.”
“The personal characteristics of those who carry out such acts is as varied as the offences themselves. I find it particularly disturbing because much of the hue and cry surrounding this issue involves Pakistani community. Let’s put aside any notion that my culture, heritage or religion condones sexual grooming – not at all.”
She added: “I won’t excuse or justify the heinous, criminal act, and won’t let the perpetrators of Pakistani heritage hide behind any cloak of cultural or religious differences.”
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Bradford City Hall
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Her comments were met with shouts from several councillors across the chamber demanding she apologise for singling out one specific community.
One voice was heard telling the councillor to “shut up.”
Cllr Hussain then made a point of order, saying: “By labelling certain characteristics – this is very divisive politics. Let’s not lose the fact that this discussion is about women and girls.”
While heckles and shouts continued as the discussion went on, some councillors expressed their anger at the behaviour.
Councillor Matt Edwards (Green, Tong) said: “The behaviour in the last five minutes in this chamber has been appalling. Shouting across a chamber telling a woman, I heard, to ‘shut her mouth’ is completely inappropriate when talking about this issue.”
Councillor Sinead Engel (Labour, Clayton and Fairweather Green) said: “I’m concerned that people sitting around me in this room think that while discussing this motion it is a good idea for a load of men to shout over a woman – I’m appalled by that.”
Following the meeting Councillor Mike Pollard (Conservative, Baildon) said he and his colleagues were concerned that aggressive behaviour at council meetings was being normalised, referring to several incidents that had happened.
He said: “That in the space of a few months one councillor has been told to be careful of ‘what comes out of that hole in your face’ and we now have a female councillor repeatedly interrupted, shouted at and told to ‘shut up’, in meetings of a Council which holds itself up as a beacon of inclusion and tolerance, somewhat undermines the claim,”
Cllr Ahmed said she was sadly not surprised by the reaction, saying “aggression in the chamber is becoming a regular occurrence.”