“Civil disobedience: if not now then when?” Malia Bouattia on Le Breakdown

LE BREAKDOWN With Yasser Louati

Malia Bouattia is the former head of the National Union of Students (NUS) in the UK. She was the first female Black British and Muslim leader of the historic student union in a landmark election that took place in 2016. She brought forward the issue or race, class and gender and was a leading voice for better access to education especially for minorities. Malia Bouattia also stood against the PREVENT provision that criinalised Muslim communities in the UK in the name of fighting terrorism.

Malia Bouattia is aso Editor at Redpepper Magazine and is herself a contributor to several news outlets, including The Guardian, Middle East Eye, The New Arab and the HuffPost. She is currently a host on the British Muslim TV panel show Women Like Us.

In this conversation, Malia gave her analysis of shrinking spaces in the West as several prominent academics are being silenced by the government as is the case for David Miller, if not outright brutalised at gunpoint like Dr Farid Hafez from the University of Salzburg.

The conversation further expanded to highlight the ongoing bullying of civil society by the Macron government, the calls to censor criticism of israel by zionist organisations in the West acting on behalf of local israeli embassies, student organizing, the role of Muslims in fighting human rights violations and finally, why time is for “civil disobedience”.