Bahar Mustafa is not the misandric monster the right wing press make her out to be. The Goldsmiths Students’ Union welfare and diversity officer, who found herself the subject of a media feeding frenzy for a throwaway tweet, is shy and unassuming. But she’s also unapologetic, despite receiving a court summons for “sending a communication with a threatening message” and “sending a grossly offensive message via a public communication network”. While the charges were dropped days before she was due in court, they’ve deeply affected her, and she’s angry.
“It’s easier to attack an individual and defame her character – especially if she is a woman of colour with a Muslim name – than it is to challenge the ideology and political movement she represents,” she says.