A Goldsmiths student petition calling for a vote of no confidence on Bahar Mustafa, the controversial Welfare and Diversity officer, has failed.
The Student Union has announced that the petition has received only “165 valid signatures.” Support from 3% of Goldsmiths students was necessary for the petition to lead into a vote of no confidence. The petition has fallen short by 78 votes.
The vote of not confidence could have led into Mustafa effectively losing her job.
The Student Union said in a statement:
We recognise that some students and a large number of people outside of the organisation are unhappy with the work of our elected representatives. We are looking at how we can address those concerns in dialogue with our members and with our trustees, who oversee our work.
Following the news, a wave of support started in social media.
Despite the best efforts of the right wing press (including the Independent), Bahar Mustafa keeps her job 😀 😀 😀 http://t.co/JbrXLOpsES
— sjw doof warrior (@stavvers) May 27, 2015
A victory against pointless online shaming and constantly trying to get people who disagree with you fired. http://t.co/98sUP9hGuy — Rory (@roreiy) May 27, 2015
Great that Bahar Mustafa is keeping her job! http://t.co/7P5d1eK2lu
— Dani A (@danieands) May 27, 2015
im so glad the vote of no confidence petition against bahar mustafa failed? she sounds way cool — lewis (@princelnigo) May 27, 2015
Whilst right-wing trolls attacked Bahar, including press, Goldsmiths Students don’t want her fired (under 2%) Big up! http://t.co/QOX5nakpLU
— Michael Segalov (@MikeSegalov) May 27, 2015
Eat that: Petition to fire Bahar Mustafa fails http://t.co/C1nMgSWC0r #ISupportBaharMustafa — s. varatharajah (@varathas) May 27, 2015
Other users disagreed with the outcome of the vote:
Bahar Mustafa will remain in post despite two petitions to have her removed, one of which gained 21,000 signatures
— adekunle abiola (@adekz_b) May 27, 2015
Nothing says ‘diversity’ like banning ethnicities, genders and sexualities that aren’t yours, then joking about their murder. #BaharMustafa — Rye Zuul Iblis (@RyeZuul) May 27, 2015
If #BaharMustafa was a guy, we’d have never got to the vote of no confidence stage, they’d be fired and kicked out of uni on the spot
— Saurav (@Ricky251294) May 27, 2015
We can encourage the legal route here: https://t.co/vnOCFJOIFf Sod the hipster students. @ZombieNeith — Angela NotYourShield (@angeladavis003) May 27, 2015
Bahar Mustafa should NOT remain in her role. This is insanity. http://t.co/jYVO2k8tRh
— Logan (@LoganMcOwen) May 27, 2015
Don’t you guys love double standards? http://t.co/aoe0wjKIBR — Trevgauntlet (@Trevgauntlet) May 27, 2015
As a white woman (and a Goldsmiths student), I feel more oppressed by Bahar and her #supportbaharmustafa crowd than I do by white men.
— Harriet (@Harryyy094) May 27, 2015
Pretty sure Bahar Mustafa finds Jews oppressive, as well. I await her further methods of encouraging harmony between ethnic groups. — Mr. Strings (@OmniUke) May 27, 2015
Mustafa, 27, first caused controversy when she requested “man and/or white” people to not attend diversity events. She later said in an online statement that she posted a series of tweets that included the hashtag #killallwhiteman. It later emerged that she used pictures featuring women with weapons for her election campaign.
The petition asking for a vote of no confidence said Mustafa has made students feel “intimidated, unsupported, and unrepresented”.
It continued: “The current Welfare and Diversity Officer has used hate speech based on race and gender. For example the consistent use of hash-tags such as #killallwhitemen and #misandry, and publically calling someone ‘white trash’ under the official GSU Welfare and Diversity Officer twitter account.”
Mustafa described the posting of the hasthags in her personal account as “in-jokes”. She says her statement: “It’s a way of reclaiming the power from the trauma many of us experience as queers, women, people of colour, who are on the receiving end of racism, misogyny and homophobia daily. These are not political stances.”
On using the #whitetrash tag in her official Student Union account, she says: “I can accept that it was not professional and I do apologise for this.”
Police have launched an investigation into a complaint about alleged ‘racially motivated and malicious’ communications involving the hashtag #killallwhitemen. While they did not confirm the names of people under investigation they have said it involves tweets using the #killallwhitemen hashtag.
Mustafa did not respond to Easlondonlines’ resquest for comment.