Birmingham activist returns British Empire Medal
An activist from Birmingham who was awarded the British Empire Medal has returned it amid the Black Lives Matter protests.
Anisa Morridadi was awarded the honour in 2013 for services to education and young people.
At the time, she said she’d accepted it believing she could “use the platform to make a change.”
But she says hopes that she'd “reclaim the word Empire” and give it new meaning have since been dashed.
In a letter to the West Midlands Lord-Lieutenant, John Crabtree, she explains why she is returning the medal, say it is her responsibility “not to uphold forms of power that marginalise, exclude and harm.”
In a blogpost, Anisa expanded on her decision to return the medal:
She’s now calling for a “new system of recognition and honours for service to public life that is divorced from Empire and colonialism.”
John Crabtree, the region’s Lord-Lieutenant, and holder of an OBE, says he respects Anisa’s decision.
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