Baroness Sayeeda Warsi continued in the current vein of making history this week as she becomes the first Muslim woman to serve in a British Government Cabinet.Previously the shadow minister for community cohesion when her Conservative Party were in opposition, she was evidently keen to make her mark as she posed on the steps of No. 10 yesterday in a bright pink and purple salwar kameez, a traditional Islamic garment - a sharp contrast to the dark suits sported by most of the other, predominantly male, Cabinet members.
Baroness Warsi takes her seat in cabinet currently as a minister without portfolio but also in her roles as chairman of the Conservative Party, a position she recently accepted to replace Eric Pickles who is now Communities Secretary. She has previously served as vice-chairman of Party from 2005 to 2007.
“To be born as the daughter of an immigrant mill worker in a mill town in Yorkshire, to have the privilege of serving in Cabinet at such an important time in Britain's history, I think it is terribly humbling,” she told reporters camped outside No. 10.
Somewhat predictably, the right-wing Daily Mail chose to sideline this ‘small’ matter of history-making as proof of how multi-cultural the country is, by instead focusing the intention on how she used the Downing Street railing to hang her coat on to pose for the photo.
Headlined “Hang on, you can't leave that there! Baroness Warsi uses No.10 railing as coat hook as she poses for photo”, the undertone was one of ‘hang on, how dare she do that!’ – then again this is the Daily Mail…
