Stacey Dooley: BBC host defends interview with Isis rape victim against claims it was ‘exploitative’

‘My hand to my heart, I genuinely feel like she wanted to tell us everything that she did,’ said Dooley

Stacey Dooley has defended her decision to interview a rape victim in her show Face to Face with Isis, following accusations of exploitation.

In the 2018 BBC Three documentary, Dooley interviewed a 23-year-old Yazidi woman called Shireen who was held captive by Isis and raped.

Dooley took her back to Mosul to revisit the ruins of the house where she was imprisoned, and the slave market where she was sold.

The filmmaker then staged a confrontation between Shireen and an Isis fighter. When Shireen was interviewed by Dooley, her sister was still in Isis territory, meaning she could have been put at risk.

Critics took issue with Dooley’s decision to interview someone living in a displacement camp about their rape and enslavement, and pointed out that precautions such as obscuring identities were not taken.

Sareta Ashraph, a barrister who was the UN’s spokesperson on Isis crimes, called the programme “the most exploitative, least ethical ‘use’ of a survivor” that she had seen.

She tweeted that the show “abides by none of the protocols of interviewing survivors of sexual violence & excuses themselves by saying ‘well, the survivor wants to talk’ as though that erases their own ethical obligations”.

In a new interview with The Sunday Times, Dooley said she had thought about the risks involved and that Shireen had made the decision to take part for herself, after months of conversations, throughout which she was given psychosocial support.

“My hand to my heart,” said Dooley, “I genuinely feel like she wanted to tell us everything that she did, and whenever she said she didn’t want to, then we just didn’t talk about it.”

Dooley added: “She seemed very at peace. I don’t think that she regrets being there. I think she took a lot from it. I feel really happy with how that was handled. I mean, it’s such difficult territory, and it’s impossible not to second guess and think, ‘Could we have done this or this?’ But I think she was well looked after and her health was prioritised, her mental health.”

This is not the first time one of Dooley's documentaries has sparked controversy. Last year, the BBC was forced to apologise after the presenter referred to a Muslim prayer gesture as an “Isis salute”.