Met Police chief blasts ‘hateful, intolerant’ abuse aimed at female Muslim officer

PC Umar, the first hijab-wearing officer within her policing area, advocated for the needs of Muslim women in policing to create “a more inclusive culture” across the service, the federation added.

However, Sir Mark Rowley told the BBC PC Umar’s achievement had been met with an “online tirade” of racist and misogynistic abuse.

He said: “The federation put out this really positive thing about this award, and the online tirade of vileness, of racist, anti-Islam and all sorts of other abuse, and misogynistic, was horrific.

“At one extreme, somebody did an AI-generated image and put a suicide bomb on her.

“I mean, the stuff out there is just vile.”

Sir Mark said female officers and those from minority ethnic backgrounds are more likely to suffer online abuse.

Sir Mark added that the same is true for women MPs, nodding to PC Umar’s role as an operational officer working to protect parliamentarians who face abuse and threats

The commissioner added in a statement: “Every career path is open to you regardless of whether you happen to wear a kippah, turban or hijab like Fiona.

“She is being celebrated for being an excellent office demonstrating this reality. But it angers me that not for the first time, a day that should have been a celebration for Fiona was marred by hateful, intolerant abuse online.

“These people haven’t met Fiona. They know nothing of her important work. They just saw that she is a female Muslim officer who wears a hijab and decided she wasn’t deserving as a result.”

Chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation, which represents rank and file police officers, Paula Dodds said: “PC Fiona Shaik Umar is an incredible police officer who has been rightly recognised for her outstanding work.

“That’s what we should be celebrating. Not discussing the vile racist abuse directed towards her by cowardly keyboard warriors. The same people who don’t have an ounce of her courage or her sense of duty.

“We stand in solidarity with the commissioner in his condemnation of the torrent of abuse she has sadly had to endure.

“We are supporting Fiona and will continue to unashamedly celebrate the work of her, and our colleagues of all backgrounds. The disgusting bigots will not win.”

PC Umar was commended by the federation for leading the development of the Hijab Project, through which new uniform options were introduced to meet the needs of Muslim women officers.

She has provided one-to-one support to Muslim officers and staff and strengthened relationships between policing and Muslim communities, the federation said.

Reacting to receiving the award, she said: “I’m truly humbled to receive this award because I’m super passionate about the work I do around representation and inclusion for women in policing.

“I never thought about a career in the police until my daughter at the time said to me, ‘Can women like you do that job?’

“I was really offended because obviously she’d never seen anyone who looked like me being a police officer, and it’s because of that that I have continued to do this work and to try and create a space for women who look like me in policing across the UK.”