London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

BBC to 'reflect on' controversial Woman's Hour interview with Muslim leader

BBC to 'reflect on' controversial Woman's Hour interview with Muslim leader

The BBC has said Woman's Hour host Emma Barnett asked a Muslim leader about "legitimate" issues, after complaints that she had been "strikingly hostile".

The broadcaster promised to "reflect on" the concerns raised after Barnett's interview with the first woman to lead the Muslim Council of Britain.

More than 100 prominent figures signed an open letter about Zara Mohammed's "mistreatment" on Radio 4.

The show said it would "think hard" about how to reflect Muslim women.

Director general Tim Davie said he agreed with the programme's response to the letter, and that the BBC has "a responsibility to explore and debate issues within all communities".

The open letter, published on Wednesday, was signed by a range of politicians, writers, academics and other public figures.

It said Barnett "appeared intent on re-enforcing damaging and prejudicial tropes about Islam and Muslim women", and that the corporation "needs to address its engagement with and representation of Muslim women".

Emma Barnett took the reins of Woman's Hour in January 2021
In particular, the letter took issue with the host for "persistently" asking how many female imams there are in Britain.

"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," it said.

The interview "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", the letter added.

'Deepen our engagement'


In a statement on Friday, the programme said: "While we appreciate that people can sometimes have very differing responses to our live interviews and discussions, we believe it was legitimate for the programme to seek to explore some of the issues facing Muslims in the UK.

"Woman's Hour however has always been a programme that listens to feedback and learns from the responses we receive; we will reflect on the issues and concerns you raise in this open letter.

"We always endeavour to reflect the experiences and issues impacting Muslim women as well as think hard about how we do so, and we will continue to do that.

"We commit to returning to this on air soon and to deepen our engagement with the issues that matter most to Muslim women, as well as looking at representation across Woman's Hour as part of the BBC's plans to more accurately reflect the society we serve."

Tim Davie: "Improving the representation of our staff is a key priority for me and my executive team"

The open letter said part of the problem was that Muslim voices were "underrepresented at every level" within the BBC, especially in production arm BBC Studios, which makes the long-running Radio 4 programme.

Mr Davie acknowledged that the proportion of Muslim staff at the BBC is lower than the national average, but added: "It is not as low as you suggest."

He said: "Improving the representation of our staff is a key priority for me and my executive team."

He invited the writers of the letter to "meet with some senior colleagues at the BBC to talk through the issues that you raise in your letter", in order to understand BBC plans to "improve representation across our programmes and within our teams".

But the letter's authors Mariam Khan and Yassmin Abdel-Magied said Mr Davie and Woman's Hour had "failed to engage with the specifics of our concerns over the content of the interview".

They also said it was "frustrating" that the director general had chosen to quote statistics for Muslim employees across the BBC, and that representation in the TV and radio production departments of commercial arm BBC Studios was "negligible and requires urgent addressing both at staff and leadership levels".

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
×