Twitter outraged at AP for calling Amal Clooney 'actor's wife'

What comes to your mind when you hear about Amal Clooney? Is it her career as a prominent lawyer or her high-profile marriage? [caption id=“attachment_2414824” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Amal Clooney in court. Reuters[/caption] Thanks to her surname, many may automatically associate her with Hollywood star George Clooney. However, Clooney, née Alamuddin, is a renowned Humar Rights lawyer,activist, and author and a global celebrity in her own right. In fact she was was known for her high-profile clients such as  Julian Assange,  Maldives ex-President Mohamed Nasheed, and former Ukraine Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko even before she was married. So when The Associated Press (AP) tweeted the below story about Clooney, referring to her as ‘actor’s wife’ was not only unnecessary, but also offensive.

While the story, about Clooney defending three Al Jazeera journalists sentenced by Egypt to three years in prison, did not mention her husband, the tweet her look like more of a Hollywood personality than an internationally successful lawyer that she is. As expected, the gaffe sparked outrage on Twitter with many users calling AP out on the sexist nature of the tweet.

However AP did not take down the original tweet but about an hour later posted another tweet that referred to Clooney as a Human Rights lawyer.

Overall, it comes as no surprise that Twitter came down hard on AP. Gender equality is a topic that is widely contended on Twitter and a news agency as prominent as AP identifying Clooney as by her husband’s profession in a story that is completely unconnected to Hollywood, seems to be a step back for feminism.