By Fidele Lungieki
An activist whose protest placard created a huge political storm and led to her being prosecuted in court told a guest panel at the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre at De Montfort University how the incident changed her life.
On 11th November 2023, political activist Marieha Hussain attended a pro-Palestinian protest in central London that resulted in an unpleasant state of affairs.
Ms Hussain went to the march with her husband and children, where she carried a placard that had two illustrations on either side. On one side, there was a drawing of MP Suella Braverman as the Disney character Cruella de Vil and on the other side, a drawing of a coconut palm tree with Braverman and former prime minister Rishi Sunak as the coconuts. Ms Hussain received significant backlash displaying her coconut placard.
The unfortunate turn of events awaited Ms Hussain after a passerby took a photograph of her placard and it ended up on social media and far right blog.
“The picture was posted at 3.28pm and six minutes later the police had seen it. By 3.34pm, the police had commented underneath it saying they were actively looking for me,” Ms Hussain said.
She was accused of being ‘racially abusive’ and in the months after, had many articles published about her which resulted in her losing her job as an A-Level psychology teacher.
She explained how she had to take down pictures of her children and family on her social media because they were being plastered across the media. Ms Hussain touched on how it was a challenging time for her and her family – having to take her eldest child out of school for safeguarding and having the police constantly showing up at their house unannounced, made her fear for her safety.
On 12th September 2024, Ms Hussain underwent a two-day trial at Westminster Magistrates Court, whilst being nine months pregnant, where she was acquitted and found not guilty of a racially aggravated public order offence.
A year later, on 14th November, she was one of the guests in a panel for the Coconuts & CocoNOTS event at the Stephen Lawrence Research Centre, discussing her experience with lecturer Dr Bisi Akintoye, barrister Rajiv Menon KC and action research fellow Dr Fatima Rajina, who chaired the event.
While discussing the panel’s perspectives of the term ‘coconut’ as a people of colour, Ms Hussain explained her reasoning for portraying Braverman and Sunak as coconuts and that it was satire rather than abusive, as the courts claimed.
She explained that growing up as a brown woman, it was a term that was frequently used within brown communities as a way of calling each other out on behaviour that wasn’t socially acceptable as a person of colour.
She went into detail about how she thought coming “from one brown person to another” and more specifically “one Asian woman to another” she felt the need to call out members of her community for having instilled white supremacy. The term ‘coconut’ within a brown community she explained had nothing to do with white people, which is why she disagreed with her arrest nor being accused of a racially aggravated public offence when she intended for her placard to be satire and not abusive.
Lecturer and solicitor, Dr Akintoye, who primarily focuses on the racism within the policing of black communities, supported this argument, explaining that within black communities the term ‘coconut’ is a community term that has the same attributes – calling out other black people for aligning with colonial powers and white supremacists.
Mr Menon, the barrister who defended Ms Hussain, argued in the court that the term ‘coconut’ was satire and should not be classed as a racial slur. He explained that the word ‘coconut’ is not an abusive term and even mentioned a TV show with the name ‘Coconut’, reiterating that it is a regular term that people use and that the word itself is not offensive. Mr Menon mentioned that within the trial, the prosecution themselves were not seeing the word ‘coconut’ as racially abusive.
Senior Legacy in Action Research Fellow, Dr Rajina, asked the speakers how they thought Palestine was represented in the media as a result of Ms Hussain’s case to which Ms Hussain answered that it wasn’t an accurate representation. She said that in reality, pro-Palestinian movements are peaceful – even when antagonised by counter-protesters. Dr Akintoye contextualised this point by explaining that the media and the police work hand in hand to deter people from fighting back and standing up for what they believe in. She explained how people are apprehensive about attending protests, fearing they will be perceived as a threat or lose their jobs.
Towards the end of the Coconuts & CocoNOTS event, Ms Hussain talked about her experience being heavily pregnant and going through what she went through – she described it as “insanely difficult”. She spoke about how she was under a lot of stress and how she couldn’t enjoy her pregnancy, especially with it being her last. She explained how she underwent a lot during this period, losing her job, not being safe in her own home and having her family name gossiped about.
“I had to stay sane, it wasn’t just affecting me, it was my husband, my siblings, my children,” she said.
Ms Hussain explained that as a Muslim woman, her faith carried her through this ordeal.
