"Sharia taxi driver told me i was disgustingly dressed" says actress.

[HelenaDove]

It apparently happened after an awards ceremony.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3331164/Sharia-taxi-driver-told-disgustingly-dressed-BBC-star-Frances-Barber-tells-accosted-Uber-employee-showbusiness-awards-ceremony.html

France's barber is a well known commenter on Twitter. She wouldn't make stuff up.
Sharia - sharia law- strict Muslims

Rather sensitive timing for this story though, which makes me wonder about Barber's motives. Muslims are getting a rough ride at the moment as it is.

For what it's worth, I've only ever had one dodgy experience in a taxi and that was with an older white male driver who propositioned me because I was drunk.

It's totally irresponsible of the DM to run this story in the current climate of hate crime attacks on innocent Muslims.

I've just googled; still no one is running the story

Found this though
m.heraldscotland.com/news/13213183.Actress_sparks_fury_with__Nazi__SNP_comparison/

Yeah, maybe I don't believe her...

Yes Brenda you are correct, that sharia refers to sharia law. And therefore makes no sense used when referring to a person

That's rather bitchy! I think she still has lots of work.

Helena have you settled on your next anti-Tory riposte, now that you are a Daily Mail reader?

Brenda being 'well known on twitter' does not ='wouldn't make stuff up'

Any publicity is good publicity for a washed up old Inspector Morse actress that, as this thread shows, hardly anyone has heard of anymore.

She plays a barrister in the current, prime-time 'Silk' and has an extremely successful theatrical career ThenLater I'm perfectly well aware of her. I'm sure many people are.

Rather sensitive timing for this story though, which makes me wonder about Barber's motives.

Well yes, on the face of it, it would be good if all Muslims worldwide, diverse crowd of normal and imperfect humanity that they are, would read the memo to behave impeccably for the foreseeable. But this being RL, and Muslims being fallible human beings like everyone else, they won't.

I imagine her motivation revolved around telling the truth.

She possibly said it years ago and the DM have dug it up now. Wouldn't be the first time.

Uber's quite recent isn't it?

IME, when faced with pseudo-religious, misogynistic abuse, getting extremely pissed off is quite a normal reaction, regardless of the religion being invoked by the idiot in question. She was probably just extremely pissed off and in no mood to kow-tow to political hypersensitivites. I can't say I blame her TBH.

"Well yes, on the face of it, it would be good if all Muslims worldwide, diverse crowd of normal and imperfect humanity that they are, would read the memo to behave impeccably for the foreseeable. But this being RL, and Muslims being fallible human beings like everyone else, they won't."

That's quite obviously not what I was saying, but I see you haven't let that stopped you trotting out a pointlessly fatuous rejoinder.

I've just checked her twitter feed, and I can't see where she mentions sharia law at all, though perhaps someone else can? So it does look like the classic DM spin.

After Cathy Newman (Channel 4 presenter) tweeted that she had been 'ushered' out of a mosque and then CCTV footage showed this had not happened at all, I will take this new DM reported incident with a pinch of salt.

It just does not make sense for a woman dressed head to tow in black velvet with a shawl to be told she is 'disgustingly dressed'.

This is not disbelieving women who complain of assault. I read the Everyday Sexism project website often and it makes my blood boil.

oh, I see it now - earlier tweet. As you were!

That article says "After leaving the event, she booked the taxi through Uber, which sends your location to the company’s nearby cars, one of which will pick you up. She said she mentioned that it was a cold night, to which the driver responded: ‘Well if you weren’t so disgustingly dressed...’"

It is followed as 'related article' by this one that says "They'll catch their death! Stars brave biting temperatures in the name of fashion with Cheryl, Mollie and Pixie taking the plunge (...but at least Victoria keeps sensibly wrapped up in a tuxedo)"

Not that I am excusing the driver if he did say that.

It's not obvious to me findo but be rude if you want to.

I find the fingers-in-ears 'All shades of x religion and all of its followers are blameless and incapable of all wrongdoing' attitude quite fatuous, personally.

Not to mention deeply patronising. We won't tackle the current problems by treating all Muslims as though they are cute little house pets. That's just as insulting and damaging as the attitude that all Muslims are suspect, dangerous and generally a bit dodgy.

OTOH, the involvement of the DM is no reason to doubt Ms Barber's account of the incident, if that's the source of the discomfort. Yet her account is being multiply doubted on this thread.

It's a previous post "just had a sharia Uber driver for the first time in London. Shocked. Reported."

Apparently she made light chit chat about how cold she was and he said "well you shouldn't be so disgustingly dressed".

I see no particular motive why she would be lying. Sharia is an inaccurate description but as an elision for "person who'd be happier if we were all be living under sharia law" it's comprehensible.

Whether it's sufficiently serious that she had to go public or should have kept quiet and just reported in the current climate ..... Dunno. But unsurprising that of all the hundreds of women who get harassment in London on the basis of their gender each day the Daily Mail goes with this one as a story.

Again, with the deliberate misinterpretation... "'All shades of x religion and all of its followers are blameless and incapable of all wrongdoing'"

Find me where I said that, or anything like it, and I'll apologise for being rude.

The rest of your post is bordering on offensive. To spell it out, not that I should need to, I'm talking about the timing of this story in a week when hate crimes against Muslims - particularly assaults against lone Muslim women - have tripled. So the timing of Barber's tweet about one rude taxi driver and its reporting across the national media is just going to add to the fire and lead to more attacks.

Or do assaults only matter if white women are the victims? In all seriousness I know that's not what you're saying but I'm just showing that two can play your game.

Whether it's sufficiently serious that she had to go public or should have kept quiet and just reported in the current climate ..... Dunno.

Why shouldn't she tell the complete and unvarnished truth on her own twitter feed? It might actually provoke some intelligent thought about culture clash, assimilation etc - maybe the citizenship test curriculum or similar- in a few helpful places (as well as the DM teeth gnashing). PP had a point about minicab driving being go-to employment for recently arrivees.

unsurprising that of all the hundreds of women who get harassment in London on the basis of their gender each day the Daily Mail goes with this one as a story.

Agree.

DM must have more than one person employed FT just to trawl SM for 'stories'. It would be quite interesting to see what their list of 'hot topics' are

Or do assaults only matter if white women are the victims? In all seriousness I know that's not what you're saying but I'm just showing that two can play your game.

Then why fucking well say it?

I'm arguing that we need to be colour/creed blind in these matters. NOT the opposite.

And one piece in the DM is not 'reporting across the national media'. It's the DM. People can contextualize that.

"Then why fucking well say it? "... well, quite. Irritating, isn't it.

I live in Rotherham. I have spent many hours in taxis, many of them drunk. Many of the drivers were muslim. I have never had any one of them say anything that could be classed as sexist or racist or even offensive.

However I knew girls at school who with hindsight were being groomed and abused by gangs of men many of them who used the fact they were taxi drivers to cover up in plain sight what they were doing.

I know these girls asked for help. I know that the authorities were petrified of offending or causing a race riot. So nothing was done. I also know a well known, well used local firm who had previously refused to employ muslim drivers were forced to do so by the authorities. I know that girls in care were the most vulnerable and that the authorities actually had contracts with the taxi firms to move these girls around when necessary. I know of one ex taxi driver who us a drug dealer and a thug and pretty much untouchable for some reason. I know for a fact his rank was involved with child abuse as one of my school friends was being abused by him and his family.

So yeah. When a person says 'this taxi driver said or did this' I tend to believe them. Whether that is a 14 year old girl in and out of the care system or a respected actress.

I

Findo I have no idea what you're saying. It sounds suspiciously like bollocks to me.