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On Wednesday 4 February 2015, the Yarra Interfaith Network held its first public event at the Richmond Town Hall in the evening. The theme of the session was the challenges that women face when practising their particular faith in Australia.

The evening began with a welcome from Leona Scott, the president of YIN, and was followed by an Acknowledgement of the Traditional Owners of the land – the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin nation. The three speakers were Tanya Warms from the Jewish community; Shahrzad Ferdowsi from the Baha’i community and Selima Ymer from the Muslim community.

JUDAISM

Tanya began by reporting that in Australia she had no serious problems with practising her religion. However, she then added that difficulties did arise at times because of the ongoing strife and warfare between Israelis and Palestinians. She intimated that sometimes in this country, as in other parts of the world, anti-Semitism rears its ugly head. She continued in lighter vein remarking that kosher food was often difficult to obtain and frequently twice as dear as other food and that some people had a stereotyped view of members of the Jewish faith –black frock coats etc, not realising that women were members of the Jewish faith too.

BAHA’I

Shahrzad made the general point that the challenges of faith differ from one person to another and then expressed her happy satisfaction with the state of openness and freedom in Australia. She went on to say she, as a Baha’i woman, rejoiced in the extremely strong emphasis her faith placed on the education of girls and spoke of her own involvement in such education. Talking of the relationship between the sexes she used a lovely metaphor: Men and women are the two wings of the one bird.

ISLAM

Selima, Australian born, shared with us the fact that until she became a mother, twelve years ago at the age of 23, she had not worn hijab. When she decided to begin wearing it the decision was entirely her own and she announced her intention simply by appearing in the veil. Now that she wears it habitually, she is dryly amused when people remark, ‘You speak English well.’ Recently, when going through customs on returning from overseas, she was asked to stand aside by security and she puts this down to her style of dress. Such experiences are unpleasant and make her feel stereotyped. Her wish is to be accepted and respected for who she is. She also remarked that in the present climate of fear regarding terrorist attacks, she is frequently asked to justify her religion.

After the three panellists had presented, the audience asked questions. The questions and answers continued over coffee and cake. Thirty-five people from the Yarra area and beyond attended. 

Source: aais.org.au/downloads/events/2015/YarraInterfaithNetwork_Feb2015.pdf