A former detective inspector turned whistleblower at the British county of West Midlands Police has revealed that the personnel deputed for close protection of Malala Yousafzai referred to her as “Tikka Masala”.
Rebecca Kalam is said to have told the UK’s Channel 4 News that she overheard some of the education activist's protection guards refer to her "on a couple of occasions as tikka masala", as reported by the Daily Mail.
“Malala, she was referred to on a couple of occasions as tikka masala.”
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) September 6, 2023
A former female detective inspector at West Midlands Police tells @darshnasoni she overheard racist slurs against human rights activist Malala Yousafzai from her close protection officers. pic.twitter.com/gJiPoTCu6M
Ms Kalam has previously accused the West Midlands Police of racism, misogyny, and poisonous behaviour. She has also recently won an employment case against the force.
Ms Kalam, who might be in line for a record settlement in this type of dispute, has now released details of the accusations she lodged against officers, with the police force accepting a total of 75 complaints.
According to Ms Kalam, who left the police in July, her fellow officers would refer to duty in central Birmingham as “pussy patrol”, alleging they would sit “gawking” at women and talking on which ones they would like to have a liaison with.
During her 10 years with the force, she claims a former colleague exposed himself to her and another attempted to grab her private parts.
She also claimed she was strip searched down to her pants in front of male colleagues during a training exercise. She further claimed that she was strip searched down to her knickers in front of male colleagues during a training exercise and that she was instructed that as an ethnic minority, she had to be the unit's 'model girl'.
'We should be trusting those cops to safeguard them,' she said. If that was your daughter and you knew guns cops were doing that, I'd be worried if I had a daughter.Within that unit, there are predators.'
Malala Yousafzai, a 14-year-old student from Pakistan, was airlifted to Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital in 2012 after being shot in the head by Taliban gunmen for advocating for women's education. The Pakistani activist went on to become the Nobel Peace Prize's youngest recipient.
