Inaya Folarin Iman

Last updated

Inaya Folarin Iman
Inaya Folarin Iman on Rebel Wisdom.jpg
Iman in 2021
Born
Inaya Folarin Iman

(1996-11-08) 8 November 1996 (age 27)
Tooting, London
Notable credits

Inaya Folarin Iman (born 8 November 1996) is a British journalist, commentator, and television presenter who has presented for GB News. [2] She is also the director and founder of the Equiano Project (named after abolitionist Olaudah Equiano), which describes itself as "a debate, discussion and ideas forum" that "focus[es] on race, culture and politics". [3] In September 2021, she was appointed as a trustee for the National Portrait Gallery in London. [4]

Contents

Iman was signed by GB News, a news channel that began broadcasting in June 2021. On the channel, she hosted a weekly culture and politics show, The Discussion, which aired every Sunday until May 2022. In 2023, Iman became a regular panellist for the BBC Radio 4 programme The Moral Maze .

Early life

Born in Tooting, south London, in 1996, Iman is the daughter of Bola Anike. She was educated at Hockerill Anglo-European College in Hertfordshire, St John Fisher Roman Catholic School in Chatham, Tonbridge Grammar School and the University of Leeds, where she gained a BA in Arabic and International Relations in 2019. [2]

Political views

A supporter of Britain's withdrawal from the EU and former Brexit Party candidate, [5] Iman was a member of the Free Speech Union and was a former project manager for Index on Censorship. [6]

Iman has criticised Black Lives Matter, seeing the movement as an "opportunistic pretext for an outpouring of self-righteous rage". [1] Following the murder of George Floyd, Iman criticised comparisons between black people's experiences in the United Kingdom and the United States. [7] Alongside Andrew Doyle, Claire Fox and others, she was co-signator of a letter in The Spectator which said that "activists, corporations and institutions seem to have seized the opportunity to exploit Floyd's death to promote an ideological agenda that threatens to undermine British race relations. ... We must oppose and expose the racial division being sown in the name of anti-racism." [8] She has also criticised gestures such as "taking the knee" against racism, which she sees as part of a culture war. [9] [10]

Writing for Spiked , she rejected the claims of BLM that Britain is a racist society, saying that in the UK, "racial equality is near achieved and so-called structural racism has been almost totally eradicated". [1] [11]

She has written for The Daily Telegraph , the Daily Mail , The Times , Spiked , [1] Standpoint , [12] BrexitCentral, [13] gal-dem [14] and the i . [5] She has featured and made appearances on Politics Live , The Big Questions , Good Morning Britain , Sky News , Moral Maze , Vox and BBC Radio 5 Live . [15]

Electoral record

General election 2019: Leeds North East [16] [17]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Fabian Hamilton 29,024 57.5 −5.6
Conservative Amjad Bashir 111,93523.6−7.4
Liberal Democrats Jon Hannah5,66511.2+7.5
Green Rachel Hartshorne1,9313.8+2.5
Brexit Party Inaya Folarin Iman1,7693.5New
Alliance for Green SocialismCelia Foote1760.3+0.1
Majority17,08933.8+1.7
Turnout 50,50071.6−4.25
Labour hold Swing +0.9

1 The Conservative Party suspended Amjad Bashir on 20 November 2019. He still appeared on ballot papers under the Conservative label, as nominations had closed by the time of the suspension. [18]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Sherwin, Andrew (2 March 2021). "Andrew Neil's GB News signs 'woke opponent' Inaya Folarin Iman as a presenter". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Iman, Inaya Folarin, (born 8 Nov. 1996), Director, Equiano Project, since 2020; Head, Public Events Programme, Civic Future, since 2022". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u296350 . Retrieved 4 January 2024.
  3. ↑ "About". The Equiano Project. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  4. ↑ "Inaya Folarin Iman and Simon Sebag Montefiore appointed as Trustees of the National Portrait Gallery". gov.uk . Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  5. 1 2 "As a Brexit Party candidate I'm disappointed some are having to stand down". inews.co.uk. 14 November 2019.
  6. ↑ "Who We Are". The Free Speech Union. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  7. ↑ "Has Black Lives Matter made a difference?" . The Sunday Times. 25 May 2021. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  8. ↑ "Racial division is being sown in the name of anti-racism". The Spectator. 30 June 2020. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  9. ↑ Adejobi, Alicia (14 June 2021). "GB News' Inaya accuses England team of 'waging culture war on fans'". Metro. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  10. ↑ Balla, Reemul (16 June 2021). "'GB News is a breath of fresh air but a few things made me cringe'". MyLondon. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  11. ↑ "2020: the year racial identity took over". www.spiked-online.com. 27 December 2020. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  12. ↑ "A defence of difference". Standpoint. 10 July 2020. Archived from the original on 4 August 2020. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  13. ↑ "The compelling 'take back control' mantra must be harnessed to bring about long-term political change". BrexitCentral. 17 November 2019. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  14. ↑ Folarin Iman, Inaya (2 May 2018). "Are we doing enough to help our homelands?". gal-dem.
  15. ↑ "Inaya Folarin Iman". Debating Matters. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  16. ↑ "Parliamentary General Election results". Archived from the original on 14 December 2019.
  17. ↑ "Leeds North East parliamentary constituency - Election 2019" – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  18. ↑ "General election 2019: Tory candidate Amjad Bashir suspended over anti-Semitism". BBC News. 20 November 2019. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
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