While All Eyes Were On Dutton, Our First Female Muslim Senator Gave A Powerful Maiden Speech
Politics doesn't have to be a dumpster fire all the time.
Australia’s first female Muslim Senator, Mehreen Faruqi, has condemned racism and inequality in a powerful maiden address to Parliament.
A week after Katter’s Australian Party Senator Fraser Anning called for a “final solution” to Muslim immigration, and just hours after Peter Dutton attempted to wrest control of the government away from Malcolm Turnbull, Faruqi took to the floor of the Senate and briefly reminded us that politics in this country doesn’t have to be a raging dumpster fire 100 percent of the time.
Instead, the new Greens Senator used her speech to pledge to fight racism wherever she encounters it, but especially in the nation’s capital.
“The existence of racism, sexism and other discrimination is not new, but what has changed is its legitimisation, normalisation and encouragement in the media and in politics,” Faruqi said. “Political leaders, in addition to their old habit of racist dog-whistling, are now comfortable outright fanning the flames of racial conflict.”
“It’s all well and good for politicians to condemn the most blatant racism, but we cannot allow them to use these public displays of solidarity as cover for their own role in creating and fanning racial division.”
“You cannot condemn racism and then, in a warm glow of self-congratulation, allow deep-rooted structures of discrimination to remain in access to health care and public services, in our prisons and justice system and in our immigration system.”
“The reality is that my presence in the Senate is an affront to some,” Faruqi continued. “They are offended that people of colour, and Muslims, have the audacity to not only exist but to open our mouths and join the public debate. Some politicians call us cockroaches. Some say we are a disease against which Australia needs vaccination. Some, if they had their way, would ban us from making Australia our home.
“So it is with great pride that I stand here before you, unapologetically — a brown, Muslim, migrant, feminist woman, and a Greens senator.”
To those who want me to F off back to where I came from, I say:
Mazarrat chahiti hoon, magar afsoas nahin. Yeh maira ghar hai aur mein kaheen naheen jaon gee.
Sorry, not sorry. This is my home and I’m not going anywhere.
— Mehreen Faruqi (@MehreenFaruqi) August 21, 2018
Faruqi also took aim at Australia’s appalling treatment of asylum seekers, contrasting it with her own experience as a new migrant a quarter of a century ago.
“While I did feel welcomed when we arrived here, migrants coming to our shores today would not be able to say the same,” she said. “The last 26 years have seen governments erode support for newcomers as bigotry and xenophobia have been allowed to flourish.”
You can watch Mehreen Faruqi’s full maiden address to Parliament below.