AL-FAIFI LAUNCHED HER BID TO ENTER THE SENEDD AT A MEETING ON WEDNESDAY AND IS BEING SUPPORTED BY FORMER PARTY LEADER LEANNE WOOD
IF SUCCESSFUL, THE CAMPAIGNER WOULD MAKE HISTORY BY NOT ONLY BEING THE FIRST MUSLIM WOMAN AM, BUT THE FIRST BME WOMAN AM
AL-FAIFI SAYS SHE IS STANDING UP FOR THE ‘MOST VULNERABLE’ AND HAS HAD TO FACE DOWN FAR RIGHT DEATH THREATS
Cover Image:Copyright V Merkova
The campaigner and anti-racism activist Sahar Al-Faifi has launched a bid to be the Plaid Cymru candidate for South Wales Central in the Assembly elections in 2021. If successful, she will make history as the first Muslim woman to enter The Senedd.
In a campaign video released on Wednesday, Sahar Al-Faifi said that she was “running for the most vulnerable and disenfranchised” people in Wales.
“I’ve seen our politicians lie to us. I’ve seen the rise of people going to foodbanks… people not being paid the living wage” she said.
Al-Faifi has been at the forefront of fighting racism and Islamophobia in Wales. After the terrorist massacre in Christchurch in March last year, where a gunman killed 51 Muslim worshippers, she was instrumental in organising a vigil commemorating the victims.
She is an outspoken critic of the far right and Boris Johnson, has attacked Western foreign policy in relation to Iraq and Afghanistan and marched against the Israeli bombing of Gaza.
In a Facebook post accompanying the video, she said: “I choose to be confident in who I am and in my identity. I choose to rise up against those who hate… the far-right messed with the wrong person.” Former Plaid Cymru Leader Leanne Wood shared her Tweet with the words ‘Pob Lwc!’
However the activist also describes the last year as the“toughest” of her life. “The far right abuse, the smear campaigns, the death threats, the racism, the hate – it was enough to put me to tears so many nights,” she said.
In the run up to the general election in December last year the campaigner featured in a Plaid Cymru election broadcast, with a picture of her used to promote the video on social media.
The image of Al-Faifi in her face veil, accompanied with a slogan about an inclusive Wales, prompted a vicious backlash on Twitter with many users being openly racist and Islamophobic.
Analysis by voice.wales at the time found that a staggering 105 hostile or abusive comments had been directed towards Al-Faifi in less than 72 hours under just one Tweet. Some users altered the image so it read ‘Taly-y-Ban’ under the image of her face, others claimed Muslim women were all lazy. The right wing website Guido Fawkes ran a story titled ‘Plaid’s Taffy Jihadi.’
Immediately following the video’s release, however, Plaid Cymru suspended the activist after deleted Tweets were unearthed from 2013, which Sahar herself admitted crossed “the boundary of criticism of Israel into anti-Semitism.”
Plaid Cymru condemned the racism directed at Sahar, but said they were suspending the activist as they did not tolerate “Antisemitism, racism or intolerance in any form.”
Al-Faifi, who works with multiple faiths across South Wales against the far right, apologised for the ‘handful of tweets,” and said: “I have also undertaken Antisemitism training, both formally through the Board of Deputies and informally with Jewish colleagues in order to ensure I never repeat the same mistakes.”
Following an internal investigation, Sahar was re-instated. In statement on 20th February, she said a panel had concluded that there was ‘no need for sanctions.’
In her launch statement just days after she regained full membership of Plaid Cymru, Sahar says that she wants to “work tirelessly until I see a better world, a world that we can all be proud of creating together.”
Last year voice.wales spoke to Sahar about Islamophobia and how, as a regional co-coordinator for Muslim Engagement and Development (MEND), she has helped numerous women who had been the victim of racist attacks. One case she was dealing with at the time was of a woman from Newport who had been forced to close her shop in the city centre after being violently attacked and having her veil torn off her face as she was on her way to work.
Speaking about the attacks from the far right that she faced, Sahar told us that: “The very thing they want to achieve is to silence [me].
“[They say] I shouldn’t be out there participating, being vocal and so on. And because of that, I challenge these kind of narratives even more.”
She is now urging people to join Plaid Cymru before March 1st so they can vote for her to be the party’s list candidate, a position previously held by Leanne Wood who it’s thought will now stand to run as the party’s constituency candidate.
Sahar Al-Faifi’s campaign is likely to become a flash-point in the fight against Islamophobia in Wales. If she is elected to the Senedd, it will not only be a blow to racists and the far right, but will also make history.
And along with figures like Ilhan Omar in the US, a victory for Sahar will give confidence to Muslim women everywhere that they can fight back and win.
