LONDON: The British Pakistani school teacher and campaigner Marieha Hussain has said she is relieved that she was honourably acquitted of a racially aggravated public order offence over the “Coconut” placard but questioned the role of Britain’s institutions for prosecuting her at the first place for criticising former prime minister Rishi Sunak and former home secretary Suella Braverman.
Last week, a judge at the Westminster Magistrates” Court declared that Marieha Hussain was not guilty of the racially aggravated public order offence and that she was honest and consistent in her account and her views.
In November last year, the Metropolitan Police published her “coconut” placard picture – taken during a march for Palestine and published first by pro-Zionism blog Harry’s place - asking the public for help to identify her. Immediately afterwards, she was charged by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), she lost her job, her family home address was published by the right-wing media, her house was besieged and her whole family was harassed by the right-wing media. Speaking to The News and Geo at her home in High Wycombe, Marieha Hussain said she has no regrets on carrying the placard, would continue to campaign for justice for Palestinians and would never shy away from calling out racism and Islamophobia.
She said: “I made the placard myself, showing a palm tree with coconuts, Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman underneath. This meant that Rishi and Suella are coconuts, brown on the outside and white on the inside. The court accepted it was a political critique and not racist. The placard was a criticism of their racist and Islamophobic policies that were harmful only to the black people, brown people, immigrants and particularly to the Muslim communities.”
Marieha Hussain, who has two young children and was dragged through the court last week when nine months pregnant, said the whole ordeal has been very stressful for her and her family. She shared: “It was very stressful. We were afraid and scared. We were besieged by the right wing, racist media. Our lawyers and campaigning team at the CAGE charity supported us a lot. They understood we have done nothing wrong and that we will win in the end.