This article from the BBC, told from the first person perspective of Tamanna Rahman, made me really feel empathy for people that live under these circumstances every day. Placed in an area that was notorious for racially motivated attacks, she experienced a whole litany of verbal and physical abuse, simply because she wore traditional Muslim clothing.

This point really stood out for me:

I feel strongly that neighbourliness is a two-way street, but why would anybody attempt to go out of their way to get to know the community they have moved into, if that community has made you feel unwelcome for no reason but the colour of your skin?

If you are a non-English speaker, what incentive would you have to learn the language if the vast majority of communication you are likely to experience is abusive?

Unfortunately, with this kind of treatment, there isn’t much motivation for someone like Tamanna to participate in society. You push people further away from society, ostracise them, and that’s where you run into more problems later on down the track. I feel deeply for people who have to face this sort of treatment daily.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 at 6:17 am and is filed under Current Affairs, Keep n Busy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.