Sticks and Stones…

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One of my early memories at primary school was when I was around 5 years old. My best friend Emma told me her parents said she was not allowed to play with brown people anymore. I remember the 6 second pause between us both and me throwing my arms around her with a flood of apologies and running off to play elsewhere. I basically felt awful for being brown and that was what I was so sorry about! I remember the guilt stayed with me for weeks and me trying to figure out how I could solve this issue - as if it was my fault and it was me with the problem. It actually cracks me up today thinking back because it almost shows my understanding on racism and how simple my mind was.

I am actually not sure where I am going with this blog but something happened last week which makes me really want to share my story about the other side of wearing a ‘Hijab’ i.e. the prejudices which is very much apparent today. Wearing the headscarf instantly identifies your faith and will attract all sorts of attention, and lets be honest being a Muslim in a western country can sometimes attract not a positive one.
My story has been quite rocky from the simple whispers of being called an ‘Iraqi P*ki’ (Lol. I love it when they rhyme), being accused of carrying ‘weapons of mass destruction’ on me (Lol. I struggle to get my brolly in my bag) to my worse last year someone chucking alcohol on me and shouting ‘sorry, I’m not a Muslim!’ (This was not cool and made me so angry!), my list could seriously go on, some more harsh then others.
A lot of these comments I take like water of a ducks back, I must admit I have a pretty twisted sense of humour and can easily find humour in almost anything. I mean the creative abuse I have heard in the past have been pretty impressive i.e. not all these losers are dumb.

I hope this doesn’t show a weakness, but I will be honest - although I love bright Hijabs and I love my identity, I do avoid wearing them when heading to work as I travel quite a distance alone. I always stick to neutrals to try blend in and attract as little attention as possible. Especially now its dark walking home, I keep my hood up to not get noticed.

I just wanted to say to anyone that can relate to me is just to take it on the chin and don’t take things to heart as they do not know you at all. Whatever funny look you get on a train platform or passing comment you hear walking down the street. Seriously just smirk! It’s only ignorance and lack of education. My advice also is NEVER react (I must admit back in the day I would run home and round up my troops of siblings and declare war!) Today there are too many crazies out there and you just don’t know what they could do. Be the better person.

I do feel it’s important to always remain grounded; I am an extremely strong character when it comes to this sort of stuff as I have too many amazing friends from all backgrounds which would never allow me to hate or get angry due to a minority.

I know each of us has a story to tell, even if you are not Muslim, there are too many prejudices out there for everyone.
It’s a shame that I also see this between Muslims themselves, this can be due to petty things like cast or culture. A lot of people need to chill out and get along, I love seeing a mixture of people hanging out and gone past the days of Uni when all the Asian kids used to sit alone together. I mean I remember once at Uni a Pakistani person asking me why I chilled with Pakistanis couldn’t I hang with my own? (big LOL - That cracks me up). You can seriously learn a lot from each other and can honestly have some great debates too!

I have named this blog ‘Sticks and Stones’, although the rhyme tells us ‘names can never hurt us’, I know they can. If anyone ever wants to email or generally talk about this issue in detail, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.