Since January 2021, 37-year-old Emma Barnett has been the presenter of BBC‘s Woman’s Hour, a platform that discusses women’s issues, feminism, and liberty. It has been on the air since 1946 and runs from 10:00am – 11:00am (GMT +1) on BBC Radio 4.
In recent years, Barnett has been accused of disservices to women and religions, such as when she elected to have antisemite Kelechi Okafor on the air. That happened in January 2021, but by February of the same year, hundreds of public figures were calling Barnett out for her hostile interview of Zara Mohammed, the first woman and youngest person to be elected Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain. Now, Barnett’s family history with brothels and human trafficking has come back under the microscope.
There have been allegations against Barnett for her aggressive style of interviewing, but recently some more shocking discoveries about her parents have resurfaced. The Manchester Evening News reported back in 2010 that Michele Barnett, Emma’s mother, was convicted of laundering thousands of pounds acquired from her husband’s “string of brothels.” Her husband, Ian, “pleaded guilty to controlling the prostitution of a woman who was trafficked” into the United Kingdom from Lithuania. What’s more alarming, however, is the fact that now, in 2022, sources have learned that Emma was aware of her father’s brothel operation, but never discussed it with the UK media.
Although this a 10-year-plus-old story, these resurfaced details certainly point a finger at Emma, whose knowledge of her parents’ schemes puts her in a precarious public position. Naturally, once the internet caught wind of Emma’s involvement, feminists came gunning for the Woman’s Hour host, who claims to support women’s rights and safety, essentially presenting herself as a self-proclaimed feminist. Despite this, it appears she never intervened when her mother knowingly allowed her father’s brothel and human trafficking plots to unfold and then swept everything under the proverbial rug.
Everyone knows that minority groups, whether they be LGBTQ+, Indigenous people, Jewish people, women, or anyone else marginalized in our society, are sensitive topics for the entire world. There’s no denying that this development will breed bad news for Barnett, who should expect the same scrutiny as her parents for what has been perceived as a betrayal of women everywhere.