Radio 4 should listen to its interviewees

The question of Muslim women's employment inequality was discussed on Radio 4's Today programme a few minutes ago. Maria Miller MP, Chair of Women's and Equalities Committee, put forward a number of reasons for the inequality.

Being women, their ethnicity and their religion were found to be the greatest barriers for Muslim women becoming employed. Yet Nick Robinson pressed Miller on the issue of family influences, mainly men, being the major factor.

While a factor, Miller disagreed that pressure from Muslim husbands and fathers was the overriding reason, and reiterated the committee's findings.

Next a Muslim woman, Faiza Fareed (may have the name wrong, sorry) spoke. Once again Robinson led with the it's Conservative Muslim men's influence that deters women from working. Fareed came in straight away and denied this.

She outlined the way in which more and more Muslim women were entering the job market. She cited RAF engineers and GPs. But this was not good enough for Robinson who kept pushing the one point that Muslim women were blocked from employment by Muslim men.

This has become typical BBC style for a number of years. Instead of asking questions from those in the know, there is a tendency for the interviewer to push their point of view. When this fails they pose the question in another way with the intended purpose of forcing the interviewee to agree with them.