Love Island star Tasha Ghouri has said she has "embraced" her deaf accent on social media after facing ableist trolling while appearing on the dating show.
Speaking on ITV's Lorraine on Thursday, Ghouri, who was born deaf, talked about the importance of using her platform to normalise deaf accents.
The 25-year-old shared a TikTok video of her morning routine without her cochlear implant, while speaking in her deaf accent, and she received thousands of comments thanking her for her honesty.
In the video, she tells her nearly 863k TikTok followers about how she has not been confident enough to speak in the accent in her social media posts to date, and how it was a big step for her to do so.
Ghouri said on Lorraine: "It was nerve-racking (pressing send). It was definitely a vulnerable part of myself but I thought, 'You know what? I’m just going to go for it’.
"I am speaking for the whole deaf community as well, not just for myself. It was definitely scary but I am so glad I did it because the response was incredible," she said.
"It really was amazing. You only live once right so, I thought I might as well embrace myself properly.
"Honestly every single comment has been, ‘Thank you for representing the deaf community’ and ‘It’s amazing that you’ve shared this part’."
She discussed the ableism she received online about her deaf accent while appearing on Love Island.
"When I was on the show, I actually had a lot of ableism (online) about my voice and not many people understood why I spoke the way I did," she explained.
"That was probably the main trolling I got from it. TikToks were made about my voice, taking the mick out of it," she recalled.
"That’s why when I came out I was still kind of accepting coming to terms with that and this is why I felt that this was the right time to explain why my voice may sound different."
Ghouri added she was not comfortable sharing about her life as a deaf person while on the show.
She said: "I think timing-wise, I could have done it when I came out of the show but I wasn’t ready to. I wasn’t ready to share that part of me just yet."
Ghouri emphasised how supportive her partner, Andrew Le Page, has been.
The two met on season eight of Love Island and made it to the final, placing joint fourth.
Source: Press Association
