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Masooma Mehdi outside the mosque her family attends. Photo: Saraid de Silva / Julie Zhu
It Was Clearly a Joke
Masooma Mehdi arrived in Aotearoa at age 13 (the age her son Aliyaan is now) from Karachi, Pakistan. Aliyaan is in his first year of high school and joins this conversation as the podcast’s youngest participant.
Aliyaan Abbas outside his home in East Auckland. Photo: Saraid de Silva / Julie Zhu
Both mother and son have experienced attending school as a Muslim kid in a country with very little visibility of Muslim New Zealanders. Though decades apart, their experiences have been similar, with ignorance and a lack of empathy around religious practices combining to ostracise and exclude them.
“I felt quite lonely, I remember... It used to be really depressing, and that’s why I would just wait for school to finish, and just come back home,” says Masooma.
Aliyaan agrees, “I know a lot of other Muslim kids have been called things like [terrorist]... Just because I’m Muslim, doesn’t mean I’m part of ISIS, because that means if you’re Christian, you’re part of KKK.”
The white supremacist attack in Christchurch on March 15th deeply affected their whānau and community. This episode features mother and son delving deep into a reflection of how they first heard of the attack, their concerns for their community, and how they felt going to visit Al Noor Mosque themselves in the aftermath.
“We didn’t know how New Zealand was going to react. Most of us Muslims, as soon as we heard about the attack... the very first thing we were like, we hope it is not a Muslim who has done it.”
Series Classification: G (General Audiences)
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(L-R) Podcast hosts Saraid de Silva and Julie Zhu. Photo: Saraid de Silva / Julie Zhu
Conversations with My Immigrant Parents is a podcast and video series hosted, produced, and directed by Saraid de Silva and Julie Zhu.
Saraid de Silva is a Sri Lankan/Pākehā actor and writer. Her work deals with contemporary feminism and the realities of being a first-generation South Asian New Zealander.
Born in China, Julie Zhu is a filmmaker, photographer, and storyteller focused on championing the stories and voices of marginalised identities.
| Twitter: @saraiddesilva & @juliezhuu | Instagram: @convoswithmy | Facebook: whereareyoufromreally |
Photo: RNZ/NZ On Air
