2016
Sydney, New South Wales
This report was completed as an assessment in the
Introduction
Immigrants develop a sense of place in their new country and eventually are able to call it home. They normally integrate into the community into which they have arrived and start to develop a meaningful sense of belonging – being part of the Australian way of life and being able to participate in activities and values which are important to them. However, many Muslim women are not allowed to happily adjust to their new surroundings nor are they able to maintain their cultural norms and spiritual beliefs without vilification. Their adherence to their faith by wearing a headscarf (the hajib) can cause an enormous degree of controversy by others who feel that they do not belong and are out of place in the community.
Some residents of Sydney, Australia have made their feelings known and consider that Muslim women who wear the hijab are out of place in the community. These people are not reticent in making their feelings known, and whilst other immigrants might suffer some racial or national slights, it appears those hijabi-wearing Muslim women are extremely prone to being racially vilified. Australian-born Muslim women also suffer the same fate, only because they choose to wear a headscarf in deference to their religious beliefs.
The fear of terrorist threats against Australia from Muslim-based groups of fanatics is a very real fear, but any fair-thinking person should not be able to translate their fears of global terrorist groups to gentle women who are merely going about the business of living a simple life in the suburbs of Sydney. This report examines in detail the barriers faced by Muslim women in Sydney who choose to adhere to their religion by assuming a certain standard of dress.
Methodology
In order to understand the implications of the feelings of Muslim women who wear the hijab in relation to their being “out of place”, the writer has researched various stories which have appeared in the media recently. Data was gathered by accessing local stories which appeared in the significant print media available in New South Wales. Most of these stories have been obtained from credible local and international newspapers, accessed via the internet. Various recent stories from these newspapers have been condensed and duly referenced in the following paper in order to understand the implications facing Muslim women who wear the hijab in public; something they believe is a normal part of their lives.
Brief interviews were also conducted with a group of three young women in hijab, who were introduced to the writer by a friend of the family. The women were asked only three questions: Why do you wear the hijab? Do you feel that the hijab reduces your power as a woman? Have you ever experienced discrimination while wearing the hajib? In each of the three cases, the women responded positively to the first two questions, but all three said that they had experienced some form of discrimination whilst wearing the hijab in public, and one was even verbally abused in the street.
Discussion
A sense of place is a matter of knowing who you are by knowing where you are. Muslim women face a clash of this sense of place every time they are assaulted or abused by those people who are resident in the community in which they live. Numerous media outlets in New South Wales have variously reported negative incidents recently with regards to Muslim women wearing hijab (a scarf which covers the hair). Stories abound in the Sydney press of abuse and assault of Muslim women who wear hajib. Following is a sample of them.
On 3rd November, 2015, The Australian recorded the story of a Muslim fashion house in Sydney which was swarmed by police during a fashion shoot. The owner of the fashion house, who had commissioned the shoot, described the police presence as “nothing short of intimidation”. The fact that the shoot was taking place outside the Victoria Barracks army base in Paddington, Sydney, could however be seen as provocation on the part of the fashion house. Being fully aware of the sensitivity of the authorities to any potential terrorist threat, it was probably most unwise of this fashion house to locate their fashion shoot where they did.
Another emerging story from the internet media source, The New Daily, involves the interception by an Australian woman who was defending a Muslim couple on a train from abuse from fellow passengers. In particular, an older Australian woman was abusive towards the couple, who had their baby with them, and was particularly vitriolic towards the mother, wearing a hijab, telling her to “join a terrorist group in Islamic State”.
A Sydney lawyer has recently posted a case on his website involving a Muslim woman who was attacked at a train station while wearing hijab. She was patiently waiting for her train to arrive when she was verbally assaulted by a man on the platform who shouldered her, kicked her and then launched into a racist tirade against her. ABC News has since discovered that she is unable to attend work because she now fears travelling on the train .
The ABC News interviewed numerous Sydney-based hijabi-wearing women for their report on 2nd October, 2014. Every one of them recounted various stories of hate attacks and associations with Islamic terrorism. One woman, who wears the niqab (a full dress and veil designed to completely cover a Muslim woman) said she did so to please Allah , and all women interviewed stressed the importance of their being able to choose what they wore without condemnation.
Connell and Iveson maintain that a sense of place within a community can be disrupted by long term adherents to the social place in which they exist. Accordingly, although Muslim women generally go about their daily business in a quiet and unassuming manner, their mere existence can be catastrophically disrupted merely by their attire.
Valentine maintains that “proximity does not equate with meaningful contact” Here, he is trying to say that just because a person lives in a space, they do not necessarily become part of that space. It takes a lot more that habitation to become integrated as a member of a community. Despite their best efforts, Muslim women face constant prejudice due to the perception of individuals who are ignorant of Muslim beliefs and who are influenced by peer pressure and the media. Despite a perceived overt sense of acceptance and government initiatives to assist migrant assimilation, the preferred garb of Muslim women continues to shape their place in society and inhibits their possession of a sense of place for them. Although they go about their daily business, it is only when they appear in public in hijab that their sense of place is disrupted, because of the lack of acceptance of their garb in public by the “common man”.
In light of the foregoing, some positive stories have emerged. The story of a young Sydney schoolgirl who wants to be a ballerina who wears hijab recently appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald. The story tells of a young Sydney teenager who struggles to find ballet schools which cater both to her religious beliefs and her dance needs. It is significant however, that her story did not appear in the Australian media until after she was offered a scholarship, after her story appeared in the UK publication, the Daily Telegraph.
Conclusion
A sense of place exists where humans give meaning to space and when that space is given a name or definition. This separates it from the space surrounding it which is undefined. The character of place is strongly felt by those who live there. Therefore, to be “out of place”, a person must be in some way different from the other humans who define the space. This occurs when Muslim women wear the hijab in Sydney.
As can be seen from the preceding stories and interviews, Muslim women face overt obstacles to their sense of self and of their place in the community in every day of their lives. Although their significant others (usually their husbands) are able to go about in public without fear of condemnation, their mere presence on the street while wearing hijab is potentially able to elicit the most vehement of abuse responses. This appears to be the case even when a Muslim woman is accompanied by her husband and family. Valentine (2008) maintains that “cultural difference” will somehow be dissolved by an amalgamation of cultures. This sentiment is at best wishful thinking and at worst, something akin to eugenics.
References
Connell, J. a. (2014). An Eruv for St Ives? Religion, identity, place and conflict on the Sydney north shore. Australian Geographer, 45(4), 429-446.
Hocking, R. (2015, March 25. Violent attack' on Sydney Muslim woman highlights reports of Islamophobia. SBS News. Retrieved from http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2015/03/25/violent-attack-sydney-muslim-woman-highlights-reports-islamophobia
Khalik, J. (2015, November 3rd). Hijab House fashion shoot swoop baffles model Muslims. The Australian. Retrieved from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/community-under-siege/hijab-house-fashion-shoot-swoop-baffles-model-muslims/news-story/94cf07dbe8b778f0347d7a0e8404284e
Olding, R. (2016, February 18). Stephanie Kurlow, 14, given scholarship to become first hijabi ballerina. Sydney Morning Herald.
Perlman, J. (2016, February 19). Meet the Muslim schoolgirl who wants to be world’s first hijab-wearing ballerina. The Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/12164417/Meet-the-Muslim-schoolgirl-who-wants-to-be-worlds-first-hijab-wearing-ballerina.html
Stiles, J. (2016, April 16). Woman Defends Muslim Couple. The New Daily. Retrieved from http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2015/04/16/sydney-woman-defends-muslim-couple-racist/
Taha, M. (2015, March 24). Muslim woman speaks out about attack on Sydney train, says she was targeted because of religion. ABC News.
Taha, M. a. (2014, October 2). 'No-one sits next to me anymore': Australian Muslim women on how their lives have changed. ABC News.
Valentine, G. (2008). Living with difference: reflections on geographies of encounter. Progress in Human Geography, 32(3), 323-337.
