After making some ridiculous and blatantly inaccurate remarks about renowned British-Lebanese international human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin Clooney, UK Justice Minister Edward Faulks had to face a social media backlash.
With blatant misogyny, Faulks told The Daily Mail, "I’m sure she gets such high-profile cases and everyone wants her because she’s married to George Clooney. And by employing her they’ll give publicity to their case."
Clooney married American actor George Clooney at the end of 2014. At the time of their marriage she had already worked on numerous high profile international cases. She also holds degrees from Oxford and New York University, two of the most prestigious institutions of higher education in the world.
However, Faulks went on to one up his own bigotry by adding, "I heard her speak after the court case defending the journalists who were convicted in Egypt and, if I’d have closed my eyes, I’d have never placed her because she has this new-age media trendy accent."
Clooney was born in Beirut but grew up in the United Kingdom. She speaks fluent French and Arabic in addition to her impeccable English. What we want to know: How many languages does Faulks speak?
Twitter was quick to criticize Fualks' ignorant comments
Some quickly pointed out that Clooney was highly successful long before she had anything to do with her actor husband
Other's laughed off the dumb comments, mocking the minister
And others suggested that maybe he's just jealous
Pointing out Clooney's incredible accomplishments, a colleague told The Independent:
"Before her marriage, she had served as a Senior Advisor to Kofi Annan when he was the UN Special Envoy for Syria and was counsel to a UN inquiry into the legality of drone warfare. She had represented parties at the International Court of Justice, including the Government of Cambodia in a border dispute with Thailand. She had acted for Julian Assange and for the Former Prime Minister of the Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko. She also worked with the former Legal Advisor to the Foreign Office, Sir Frank Berman, who has described her as “a first-rate lawyer’. It was because of her conspicuous ability as an international lawyer that the Attorney-General appointed her in 2013 - before her marriage - to serve on his panel of experts to advise and represent this country."
For his part, Faulks ended up making a half-hearted apology saying:
"I apologise to Amal Clooney for any offence, distress, or inconvenience caused by my comments. I never intended to imply that her considerable success, nor the esteem in which she is held by the legal profession, is due to her marriage. I regret the fact that my comments have been interpreted in this way and am very happy to set the record straight," according to BT .
But at least one Tweeter mocked the apology
We're just wondering how Faulks expected us to interpret it.