[B]urlington city council candidate Mohammed Jafar, a 22-year-old Progressive, expressed sexist sentiments on Twitter when he was in high school and his early college years.
Some of the tweets describe physical violence toward women, while others echo sexist stereotypes. They were made over a period of several years.
“Somebody hold my earrings, I’m about to beat this bitches ass,” he tweeted in August 2015.
Jafar grew up in Burlington and is a recent graduate of Colby Sawyer College in New Hampshire. He came to Burlington as a refugee and is focusing on housing and income inequality in his campaign.
The tweets are from a Twitter account that is currently private, @mojojafar. The pictures associated with the account show Jafar, and state the account was founded in July 2009.
Jafar apologized Monday for the comments in an interview with VTDigger. He said they were not indicative of who is he is now, and were, in part, the symptom of the misogynistic world we live in.
“I mean, in all honesty, that is not indicative of my character,” he said. “I want to be really clear everyone offended by those comments is right to be offended. Those are especially heinous.”
Jafar is in a three-way race with Democratic incumbent Joan Shannon and Republican Paco DeFrancis.
“I don’t understand why they make watches for women when there’s a perfectly fine clock on the stove,” Jafar tweeted in 2013.
While many of the tweets are from high school, some are from his earlier years in college.
“Women are everywhere. We’re letting them play golf and tennis. It’s out of control,” he tweeted during the fall of 2015, which would have been the fall of his sophomore year of college.
“I’ve never hit a women (sic) before but I’m bout to make you my first…the closest thing to a women I’ve ever hit is my sister,” he tweeted in 2013.
“You are so dumb, if I was low enough to hit a women I would drop your ass so quick you don’t even know,” he also tweeted in 2013.
In 2012, he tweeted, “Stop tweeting about how you get treated. Go find someone who will listen or go lesbian. We don’t mind. It’s better than your bitching #women”
During the Monday interview, Jafar said he had never assaulted anyone, and as a person who values a inclusive society, he knows the statements are wrong and sees this as a learning opportunity.
“I am entirely apologetic about those comments,” he said. “I am in solidarity with those who are offended, and am willing to take advice from others on what I can do to support women if I am a city councilor.”
He said he took a class during his sophomore year of college on gender studies which helped educate him about women’s issues.
“I will make it a point to make sure we are addressing issues of our patriarchal system,” he said. “There are these systems in place that fail young men growing up. Sophomore year of college is too late to be learning about that.”
He said he took responsibility for the comments and knows he let people down.
“Those tweets are from a time in which I didn’t quite understand the implications of what I was saying and the weight that puts on other people, the weight that that puts on women who are being abused,” he said.
Jafar said he had many more tweets in recent years pushing back against sexism.
“Disappointed that America consistently demonstrates its lack of respect for women. What a message we have sent today. We have got to change. It is imperative that we change this narrative that makes it impossible for women to speak out against abuse. Shameful and embarrassed,” he wrote last Sept. 28, the day the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to move forward Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.
That tweet was provided to VTDigger by Jafar supporter Shay Totten after he had become aware a story was in the works. Totten is communications director for Rights and Democracy.
Shannon said she was disappointed to hear about Jafar’s tweets, and that she’d want to hear more about his evolution on the issue.
“I have a daughter in high school, I can’t imagine her friends tweeting stuff like that,” she said. “What I’d really like to know is, what changed for him? At what point in time did he realize this was inappropriate? I’d like to hear more from him now on where he is on women’s issues, and how do we know that that’s not a position of convenience?”
DeFrancis said he was troubled by Jafar’s tweets. But he said he understands the perils of using Twitter as a millenial.
As the leader of the Burlington Republican Party, DeFrancis used the Burlington GOP’s Twitter account to circulate dashcam footage of Sen. Debbie Ingram’s DUI arrest, and also wished “good riddance!!!” to heroin users who don’t have the “self-control” to get treatment, as Seven Days reported.
DeFrancis said he regretted both of those comments and his past behavior on Twitter. He said he has grown since the midterm elections.
Charles Metz is the head coach of the Colby Sawyer soccer team and coached Jafar in college. He said he was shocked to hear about Jafar’s tweets, and that they did not line up with the person he knows Jafar to be.
“I think out of the majority of kids I’ve had here, Mo has been one of the more mature and responsible kids, past his years in that sense,” he said. “Most kids are still learning and growing, but Mo always had his head on his shoulders.”
Metz said Jafar would encourage the other players to be more respectful to their coaching staff, and would talk to the coaches about how he could improve.
“I think he was a great teammate, both on and off the field,” he said. “He was a great player for us, has been a good alumni, and … I think he’d be a great candidate for city council, to be quite honest.”
Josh Wronski, executive director of the Vermont Progressive Party, said: “These tweets from Mohamed when he was a teenager are disappointing and wrong. We must hold people accountable whether they are candidates for office or leaders in other aspects of our community.”
However, he said “we should also give people the ability to learn and grow.
“The tweets do not reflect who Mohamed is today,” Wronski said. “We are confident that he stands with us against sexism and misogyny.”
Perri Freeman, the Progressive candidate in the city’s central district, said that she believes the tweets represent Jafar’s belief at a much younger age and that she feels his views have evolved.
She said that the state should work on building mandatory sexual health and consensual sex education into its curriculum, and that she was concerned that black men are held to a different standard than white men in Burlington, when it comes to misogyny.
But she expressed concern about the content of the tweets.
“I absolutely believe these tweets are misogynistic and jokes about violence against women at any time are never okay,” she said. “I hope he apologizes emphatically for having made these comments and we can move from this conversation to create policy that works to dismantle patriarchy and white supremacy.”
This story has been updated to include an additional comment from Josh Wronski, executive director of the Vermont Progressive Party.