RE burqa creative reflective piece:
Today is the first day of the rest of my life. Today is the day I become who I was born to be. Today I become the Muslim wife my parents expected me to be. Today, is the first day I wear my burqa.
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To be honest, I didn’t expect this day to come as quickly as it has. I remember my parents telling me from a young age, that I would ‘grow up’ and ‘make them so proud’. I never really knew what that meant until they introduced me to Abdul. At first I thought he was just a family friend who came over for dinner one evening, until half-way through when I was congratulated on my engagement. That was the moment that I realised, that this man who I thought wanted to get to know me, already knew me and basically owned me. Abdul was a pleasant man, someone I thought I could develop feelings for if given time, but once I was told that he was to be my husband, I wasn’t sure if time would be an option or even help solve the problem I was faced with.
I didn’t really have a say in who I was to marry or whether I not I wanted to wear the burqa and even though I thought that I could get used to the idea of wearing a burqa and belonging to someone I didn’t even know, it dawned on me, that this was reality. I suddenly, when face with it, feared this reality of mine. I feared what was to become of me. I feared losing my ability to make decisions and my identity. In Islamic faith, the man is dominant and the Qur’an states that men should “Tell thy wives and daughters, and the believing women, that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad): that is most convenient, that they should be known (as such) and not molested.” I suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of desperation to not want to have to wear this traditional burqa but also didn’t want to dishonour my family and Abdul.
I realised that I did not want to bring shame to my family, by not marrying Abdul or not wearing the burqa. I was after all, born a Muslim woman in Australia, brought up and a practicing Muslim. Why did I suddenly not want to follow through my faith? I think it had something to do with the current terrorism alert in Australia and when Tony Abbott, Prime Minister of Australia, stated that he “thinks a lot of Australians find the wearing of the burqa quite confronting” and confessed that he “wish it was not widely worn.” I did not want to be that confronting person that other Australians, quite like myself in most ways except one, feared due to the increasing terrorism alerts.
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Although I had heard those words from our Prime Minister of Australia, it was not enough as to do dishonour my family to agree with Tony Abbott and stop being that “confronting” burqa-wearing woman.
That is why I sit here, in a public place, writing down how I
