Twitter users want The Associated Press to know that Amal Clooney is much more than just 'an actor's wife.'
Twitter users want The Associated Press to know that Amal Clooney is much more than just "an actor's wife."
Amal Clooney, actor's wife, representing Al-Jazeera journalist accused in Egypt of ties to extremists http://t.co/i6nQg0xPg3
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 29, 2015That's how the news organization referred to the human rights lawyer in a tweet last week that sparked outrage on the Internet.
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"Her surname identifies her as an actor's wife, AP. Try 'human rights lawyer,'" one tweet read.
BREAKING: @AP Stuck in the 1950s When Women Were Valued on Who Their Husbands Were https://t.co/9f7VWi6Lbj
— Bulletproof Tiger (@TGRdnb) August 30, 2015"BREAKING: @AP Stuck in the 1950s When Women Were Valued on Who Their Husbands Were," read another.
The AP was covering Clooney because of her involvement in the trial of Egyptian-Canadian journalist Mohamed Fahmy. After broadcasting material deemed "harmful to Egypt," Fahmy and two other journalists were sentenced to three years in jail. Clooney is calling for a pardon from Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
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"It really shows how deeply ingrained sexism is," The Huffington Post's Senior Women's Editor Emma Gray told ET.
Clooney responded to the tweet during an interview with the BBC.
"There's not much I can do to control it except keep going," she said. "When people criticize journalism that focuses on the wrong issues, that's heartening and that shows that people expect more from their press."