The Muslim News - Another blow to Prevent as Gohir resigns as Government Advisor

Issue 252, Friday 30 April 2010 - 15 Jumad al-Awwal 1431

Another blow to Prevent as Gohir resigns as Government Advisor

By Hamed Chapman

The Government has suffered another blow to its discredited Prevent Violent Extremism agenda following the resignation of Shaista Gohir of National Muslim Women’s Advisory Group (NMWAG), where she was a founding member.

In a letter to Communities Secretary, John Denham, Gohir said she was stepping down with immediate effect, saying that she had become “disillusioned” with the initiative, which she now felt was a “political fad.”

In her letter, she listed several factors causing her resignation, including the inactivity of NMWAG to collectively influence policies, lack of strategy to channel Muslim women’s view to the Government and its links with the Prevent agenda.

Gohir, who is the Executive Director of the Muslim Women’s Network UK and was awarded an MBE in 2008, told The Muslim News that she had decided to speak out about her concerns despite the network receiving Government funding from the Prevent programme,

“I did not want to remain silent on my views. Too many organisations remain quiet despite taking funding. I felt that one should be able to still raise concerns despite taking funding,” she said.

“The funding has helped us build our capacity but NMWAG has not worked and women should be empowered through mainstream processes and I didn’t want to shy away from this and wanted to be honest.”

NMWAG was launched in a blaze of publicity by Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, in January 2008, saying it had a “huge role to play in helping us build a stronger, better society.”

But Gohir said that she “cannot see sufficient justification to continue with the NMWAG group. “Despite recent efforts to make the group more active, I feel it is too little too late.”

“Since the group’s launch over two years ago, I have increasingly become disillusioned with the initiative. Due to recent developments within the group, I feel that I can no longer remain on it as a matter of principle,” Gohir said.

Her decision also comes after she authored a damning report about the Government’s Prevent agenda, saying it was stigmatising all Muslims and questioning whether it was the right way of addressing the problem of violent extremism.

“I now believe the best way to empower Muslim women and channel their views into decision making processes is to not just restrict the Government’s engagement to NMWAG. As NMWAG has failed as an initiative, they should not be promoted as the only or main channel that other Government departments should engage with.”

A Communities and Local Government Spokesperson confirmed that the Department was aware of Gohir’s resignation letter, but said it was unable to comment during the election period in Britain.

Her resignation comes just one week after Parliament’s Communities and Local Government Committee issued a highly critical report on the Prevent programme, warning that it was alienating Muslims and should be changed.

The All-Party Committee also called on the Government to “clarify urgently how information collected for the purposes of project monitoring and community mapping under Prevent does not constitute ‘spying’ or ‘intelligence gathering’ of the type undertaken by the police or security services.”