Athika Ahmed (Welsh health ambassador) - Can we show her some love?

[SixSevens]

Once again, Twitter/X has sunk to new lows…

Athika Ahmed, an ambassador for the “Love Your Period” campaign is being widely bullied by thousands of men for her appearance. She’s a young woman and clearly doing good work. I hate that it’s acceptable to treat women like this.

Very few are standing up for her. Can we show her some love?

I know of her through the Love Your Period campaign, where they've done a spotlight on her work in the Muslim community and that states that she's a medical student at (I think) Cardiff uni.

Indeed. In fact I think we’re being trolled here. Surely nobody actually believes she is qualified to give health advice or that she is a good role model in any shape or form?

What had you done for public health awareness by the age of 23?

What do her qualifications have to do with her weight? Are there any other subjects where you need a specific body type to study them?

FYI, overweight people can exercise. I see plenty of overweight people at the gym. Some of them are fitter than me, I assume because they put more effort in than me.

Again, you do not need to practice something to be knowledgeable about it. I'd far sooner take medical advice from a medical student than some random skinny woman with no history of studying medicine.

Unfortunately, outside of the feminist boards, a lot of MN posters seem to really hate overweight people, and are absolutely vile about them.

She's right though.

Yes, I've noticed this. It's very odd, you'd think a forum obsessed with WLI would be the opposite. I wonder if it's a form of self-hatred, and they're reflecting their feelings about themselves onto others.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj9yep3rlylo

Explains more about her role as part of a group of people.

Too much misconceptions going around about her and forgetting what the real topic was all about.

So glad this group is here to set things straight.

I'm in the US and people over here are having a chuckle, and some are showing the other overweight women, (or men dressed as women) in similar positions. I can't remember them all, but they were from all over, including our own Dr. Rachel Levine, who is a man pretending to be a woman and was the U.S. assistant secretary of health, during the Biden administration.

If Ahmed* *had been presented as a woman talking to other women from a culture where talking about such things is taboo, it would have been received differently.

You could try reporting the comments which are abusive about her religion/skin colour/weight to Twitter?

Oh yeah it's Elon Musk's Twitter. Abuse is "free speech" (which the far right support) so reports don't do anything.

She has been presented that way - on the BBC of all places - it's not her fault if people are narrow-minded and too dumb to look beyond disgraceful Twitter posts. The article has been posted twice on this thread unless you missed that too?! Also what's the comparison with trans? She is not 'trans'. FFS.

I think that the abuse that Athika has been subjected to is absolutely appalling. However, I do think that Welsh Government and Cardiff and the Vale HB (and some other public bodies) need to seriously question their motivation in promoting their participatory work with user groups and with young people in particular. They have totally lost sight of their safeguarding responsibilities and are cynically exploiting the contribution volunteers are making to policy development and awareness raising.

It's been a longstanding issue that Welsh Ministers are prioritising input from activists over a clear evidence base and even the law. Welsh Government and Senedd internal policies, parts of the LGBTQ+ action plan and some schools guidance are prime examples of this. They have often put vulnerable people in the firing line, treating them as if they are 'pet' experts to be kept happy and then paraded publicly, rather than ordinary people with a narrow viewpoint. This is because they see their priority as to make themselves look good - especially with the election coming up in May.

Eluned Morgan, Jeremy Miles, Jane Hutt, Sarah Murphy, senior civil servants, health board officials and others all need to accept some responsibility for what has happened to Athika. They are the grown-ups here. It's not the first time that exposure has lead to uncomfortable attention for a young person. They need to give their heads a wobble if they think it could not have been predicted in the current climate.

It's promoting positive mental health around people's appearances, to be able to advocate for things that are clearly so necessary to be advocated for, despite the fact that there are so many who are shallow and unwise enough to not see that. One day I hope this notion is taken for granted, when people have enough security, support, guidance and enlightenment in youth as well as adulthood, to negate the necessity for someone or some people to point out. I hope she feels the love too, and not just the awful things floating around in what are mentally ill minds and the veiled passive validations and warped senses of judgement that have even found their way onto this thread...

It's odd how this is all presented as about the feels. We should 'show love' or get criticised for being 'warped' or 'mentally ill'.

The irony of using suggestions of mental illness as an attempt to shame other posters is interesting.

Period info and education is a good thing. Obesity has health impacts, including on periods and early onset periods. Mental health is important.

None of this should be a source of shame or used as moral judgements.

Another irony is that schools in Wales have been teaching girls about menstrual health for a very long time. Practicalities and dysmenorrhea would have been covered. Whenever stories like this one are in the media it must be very frustrating for health and wellbeing teachers and school nurses who deliver a planned programme. Maybe there's a lesson there that they aren't being delivered at the right time, or if they are being taught in mixed-sex groups it's harder for girls to concentrate and retain the information; but it's false to claim that it didn't happen.

Bit tangential sorry ...