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Shila Iqbal fired from ‘Emmerdale’ after offensive old tweets

ITV has confirmed that Shila Iqbal has been sacked from its popular show ‘Emmerdale’.

Iqbal known for playing Aiesha Richards, will no longer appear on ‘Emmerdale’ over historical offensive tweets when she was 19.

A spokesperson for the show said, “As a consequence of historic social media posts, Shila Iqbal has left her role as Aiesha Richards on Emmerdale. The programme took the decision not to renew her contract as soon as these posts were brought to the company’s attention.”

Iqbal said, “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.”

She added, “The only consideration I would ask is that I have recently received hateful tweets telling me that as a Muslim my Emmerdale role means that I am ‘committing sinful acts, promoting sin and deliberately going against the Quran’.

“We live in sensitive times for members of all communities and especially those in multi-racial Rochdale, where I grew up. 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.”