At the last Bradford Council meeting of 2024, the leading Labour group tabled a motion calling for more to be done to tackle the huge problem of violence against women and domestic abuse.
When Councillor Falak Ahmed (Conservative, Bingley Rural) spoke on the issue, she touched on the concerns around grooming carried out by some men who share her Pakistani heritage.
Cllr Ahmed had said:
“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.
I won’t excuse or justify these heinous, criminal acts, and won’t let the perpetrators of Pakistani heritage hide behind any cloak of cultural or religious differences.”
Her comments then led to several other councillors shouting at her across the chamber, telling her to ‘shut up’ and demanding an apology from her for singling out one particular community for criticism.
Neither the Lord Mayor chairing the meeting nor council leader Susan Hinchcliffe did little to stop the bad behaviour of several of the aggressive councillors.
After the very aggressive interruption Councillor Falak was allowed to finish her speech but it did leave her a little shaken.
After the meeting, Councillor Mike Pollard (Conservative, Baildon) said: “My colleagues and I are concerned that unacceptable behaviour at Council Meetings is being ignored, normalising aggressive behaviour in a hostile, febrile environment where some members feel comfortable attempting to intimate those who express views which they do not like or mention issues that they do not want discussed in public.
“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: “It is saddening that I wasn’t really surprised by the reaction to my remarks, aggression in the chamber is becoming a regular occurrence.”