GBBO star Nadiya Hussain hits back at racist Twitter trolls telling her to leave the UK

Hussain said she ‘hates herself’ for breathing the same air as those who target her
Taking a stand: Baker Nadiya Hussain
Anthony Devlin/PA
Emma Powell31 October 2017
The Weekender

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Former Great British Bake Off champion Nadiya Hussain has clapped back at a handful of trolls who have inundated her Twitter account with racist abuse.

Hussain, 32, said she ‘hates herself’ for breathing the same air as those who target her for “merely existing”.

Venting her disgust on Twitter she wrote: “I get abused for merely existing. Too brown to be English. Too Muslim to be British. Too Bengali to eat fish fingers!

“There is no end! I exist, we all do! Some days I hate myself for simply breathing the same air, that I am often told, I am not entitled to.

“Tear away your flesh, you are skeleton underneath like me, like everybody! So let’s just breathe our air, let’s exist because what else are we supposed to do?”

She was then told to leave the UK and to “stop complaining,” to which she replied: “Why would I move? I’m fed up of being told to move, leave the country or go back to where I came from!

“Come up with something more original.”

Fans jumped to her defence with TV chef Nigella Lawson tweeting: “And you are loved and needed here.”

Comedian Meera Syal posted: “You’re strong beautiful and a wonderful role model. Focus on all the love and support you’re getting back in response. Love always wins xx.”

Royal seal of approval: Nadiya with Her Majesty the Queen on her 90th birthday
John Stillwell/AP

It is not the first time the mother-of-three has spoken out about the abuse she has suffered. Last year she said it “has become a part of my life”.

Speaking to Kirsty Young on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs she said: “I expect to be shoved or pushed or verbally abused, because it happens, it's happened for years.”

Award winner: Nadiya Hussain with Mary Berry at the 2016 BAFTA TV Awards
Ian West/PA

Later that year she told her Twitter followers that a man had refused to sit next to her on public transport because of her faith.

She tweeted: “A man refused to sit next to me on the train today 'I ain't sitting near a Muslim' he said. His ignorance is his own ruin.”

Hussain found fame after winning the 2015 series of The Great British Bake Off.

She went on to make the Queen's 90th birthday cake, publish a cookery book and front shows including The Chronicles of Nadiya and Big Family Cooking Showdown.

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