Emmerdale star, 24, f ired for teenage N-word tweets
ACTRESS Shila Iqbal has been fired from Emmerdale after racist tweets she sent as a teenager were found on her official Twitter account.
Miss Iqbal, who played Aiesha Richards on the ITV soap, made the comments containing the N-word in 2013 when she was a 19-year-old student.
As a result, Emmerdale bosses say they have decided not to renew her contract.
A spokesman said: ‘The programme took the decision not to renew her contract as soon as these posts were brought to the company’s attention.’
Miss Iqbal, now 24, was a student in Rochdale when she posted the tweets. She has now deactivated her Twitter account. In a public apology, she admitted her use of the word was ‘completely wrong’.
She added in a statement: ‘I am terribly sorry and take full responsibility for my use of such inappropriate language.
‘I have paid the price and can no longer continue the job I loved the most at Emmerdale. Although I was young when I made the tweets, it was still completely wrong of me to do so and I sincerely apologise.’
The actress, who has also had roles in Lala’s Ladies and Citizen Khan, went on to say she had received ‘hateful tweets’ herself from the Muslim community.
She said: ‘The only consideration I would ask is that I have recently received hateful tweets telling me that as a Muslim my Emmerdale role means I am “committing sinful acts, promoting sin and deliberately going against the Koran”.
‘We live in sensitive times for members of all communities and especially those in multi-racial Rochdale where I grew up.’ She added: ‘I regret that I, too, have let people down by the use of such language, albeit six years ago.
‘I, like everyone else, have a responsibility about the language I have used on social media as well as in conversation.’ Miss Iqbal was confirmed as a permanent member of the cast only last month.
She said at the time: ‘I am over the moon to be back at Emmerdale as a regular. My family love Emmerdale and to be appearing in a show that you’ve grown up watching just feels like a dream!
‘Aiesha very much represents the new generation of social media fascination and her phone is her third hand. She is always camera-ready!
‘She speaks her mind, although it comes from a ditzy but good place, for sure.’
Miss Iqbal’s sacking comes after ITV had to weather another racism storm in 2016 when Marc Anwar was fired from Coronation Street for a rant on Twitter.
The Pakistan-born actor had fired off a number of tweets against Indians, referring to them ‘b ****** s’.
‘I’ve let people down’