“It’s been horrific.”
The father of Love Island contestant Tasha Ghouri has addressed some of the online abuse that has been levelled against his daughter during her time on the show.
In an interview with The Mirror, Tarek Ghouri described the comments as “nasty and unnecessary”. He also addressed the ableist abuse she has been subjected to.
“It’s just shocking,” he said. “It’s been some horrific ‘deaf and dumb cow, b***h, s**t, she’s screwed every guy in the villa type thing.”
Mr Ghouri went on: “It’s nasty and unnecessary. It makes me sick to the stomach actually.
“I don’t know what fuels people to even think like that. They don’t even know them. It’s quite bizarre.”
This isn’t the first time Tarek has defended his daughter against online abuse. A few days ago, he spoke about how she gets labelled as “sensitive”, and shared some insight on why it might seem this way.
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“It’s mentally draining for her trying to compute what’s been said, lip reading people who’s lips aren’t facing her or whose mouths are covered with bottles, who said what when many are talking,” he said.
“Staying involved in conversation when you can only hear robotic sounds in only one of your ears is mentally draining. This leads to tiredness and sometimes tears. It’s a pressured environment for all but she has an extra pressure no one seems to recognise apart from anyone who is deaf or heard of hearing.”
This past week has seen a number of Love Island viewers share their concerns over the islanders’ welfare and behaviour. Many fans took to Twitter to address Luca and Dami’s treatment of Tasha, which has been labelled as bullying.
Additionally, the domestic abuse charity Women’s Aid have said that they are now working with Love Island after their attention was brought to a number of issues.
Love Island continues tonight at 9pm on Virgin Media Two and on the Virgin Media Player.
