Shila Iqbal, who played Aiesha Richards on Emmerdale has been sacked over offensive Tweets she posted 6 years ago.
Iqbal was only made a series regular at the end of last month and said she was “terribly sorry” and took “full responsibility for my use of such inappropriate language.”
The actress, who was 19 when she posted the Tweets added:
“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 continued:
“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.”
Iqbal has now deleted her Twitter account.
An ITV spokesperson 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.”
Photo: Instagram @shila_iqbal
