Women in Australia Come Together to Combat Islamophobia in Their Community
About 100 people attended the event titled 'Mariam's Day: Muslim and non-Muslim women talking, weaving traditions and lives together' to share stories and ask questions in an attempt to gain a greater understanding of each other,ABC News reported.
Guest speaker and
former Lismore mayor Jenny Dowell said she had witnessed a rise in anti-Muslim
sentiment in the community throughout the past two years."The worst
one was a woman who was holding her little baby outside where they lived and
they were farewelling someone and the baby suddenly started crying and she
realized she had raw egg running down her clothing," Dowell said.
"The baby was
hit on the head with a raw egg by someone in a car going past that yelled
something out."It's been happening since the rise in Islamophobia
and it made me feel really sick.I wanted to reassure those people: 'don't
judge Lismore, please, by these incidents'.
"It doesn't
surprise me because I think it happens everywhere," she said.
Guest speaker Dr
Zuleyha Keskin, a lecturer in Islamic studies at Charles Sturt University, said
it was a strange feeling arriving in Lismore wearing a hijab."It's
very different to being in Sydney or Melbourne where it's more
multicultural," she said.
"Here, I
really feel it. I went to the shops and there was no one else wearing a hijab
and I think everyone was of Anglo-Saxon background.You really do feel
like a minority and people do look. I don't think it's necessarily a racist
look but it's 'oh, there's something different'."
Lismore resident
and Muslim woman Rashida Joseph said the worst discrimination she had
experienced occurred shortly after the US World Trade Centre attacks in
2001."A few days after 9/11 I was getting money out of an ATM and a
man pushed my head into the ATM and my head was split open," she said.
"I also had a
live cigarette thrown into my car at the lights.I arrived at work one day
I work with refugees who are Muslims and there were faeces smeared all over the
front door.
"Having said
all of that, I've also had incredible support from non-Muslims, so you have to
put things in proportion. We're in it together."
Despite their
experiences of discrimination, all of the speakers said they felt hopeful about
the future when communities like Lismore came together to stage events like
Mariam's Day.
Dr Keskin said she
hoped to have dispelled several myths about Muslim women."There are
so many myths, like that women in Islam are oppressed," she
said."For me, Islam empowers women. It encourages me to get an
education and to speak my mind.Wearing a hijab is not oppressive, it's
empowering because it's something I've decided to do for my religion.
"It's about
moving away from a physical focus to the spiritual, the internal and the
character."
Source: Islamic News
