Bahar Mustafa in front of a sign saying “no white – cis – men”. Pic: Change.org

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.

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.