Abused And Hounded: Labour MP Apsana Begum Speaks Out
The Owen Jones Podcast
Owen Jones
4.4 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 9 March 2023
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This is a truly disturbing episode: Labour MP Apsana Begum was elected in 2019, the first hijab-wearing MP. But she has spoken out about her experience of domestic abuse, and has said that this abuse has been weaponised against her in an attempt to remove her as an MP. Labour stands accused of a terrible failure in their duty of care - while Begum is being hounded.
On International Women's Day, we speak to Begum about the horrendous ordeal she is continuing to suffer.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Abzana Begum is one of the few working-class Muslim women elected in Parliament, |
| 0:05.0 | representing Poplar Lime House since 2019. She's been a fearless champion for causes, |
| 0:09.6 | like taking on poverty and fighting for peace, but she's spoken out about her experiences |
| 0:14.5 | of domestic abuse and she faces an attempt to deselect her as a Labour MP and how the abuse |
| 0:21.2 | that she said she has suffered has been weaponised against her and the Labour Party itself |
| 0:26.8 | has failed many have argued in its duty of care. Abzana, it's such an honor to speak to you |
| 0:32.5 | on International Women's Day, hello. Hi, hi women. Now, you took time off work after your |
| 0:41.2 | experiences and you began a phased return back in the autumn of 2022, but you said that there'd |
| 0:49.6 | been a failing and duty of care in relation to your health and wellbeing, so I just want to know |
| 0:54.8 | if you could just explain to us, what do you mean by that? Yeah, I mean, I think even just |
| 0:59.2 | entering Parliament, and I'm the first to job wearing MP in Parliament, you would think that there |
| 1:04.0 | would be more support provided to me than the average Labour MP. I mean, nobody who looks like |
| 1:10.2 | me has ever entered Parliament before and the experience has been the complete opposite. |
| 1:15.4 | There just isn't the support in place in the party to protect or safeguard people like me. |
| 1:21.9 | And what I said in June 2022 after I came back from a period of sickness is, I don't think |
| 1:32.2 | anything much has changed and I, you know, my independent domestic violence advocate working |
| 1:37.9 | with refuge said that the trigger process was an extension of the abuse that had already endured, |
| 1:44.4 | but I reached out to the party. You know, I sent correspondence to the party, I asked for support, |
| 1:52.0 | and that didn't come through. And I think that does definitely still pose questions as to the |
| 1:58.1 | support that is able to be provided by the Labour Party to survivors of domestic abuse, because I |
| 2:04.6 | certainly don't feel that I've had any meaningful engagement or support on this front. |
| 2:12.6 | So just to be clear, so people, some people might not be familiar with some of the terminology, |
... |
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