HREOC Website: Isma - Listen: National consultations on eliminating prejudice against Arab and Muslim Australias

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Notes: 30 May 2003

Consultation with Iraqi refugee
women in Shepparton hosted by the Shepparton Ethnic Communities Council
at the Goulburn-Oven's TAFE, 30 May 2003

The meeting was facilitated
by Omeima Sukkarieh (who also translated from Arabic to English) and Susanna
Iuliano from HREOC. It was attended by 21 invited participants, all Iraqi
women living in Shepparton who attend English classes at the Goulburn-Ovens
TAFE. The consultation was held during regular class-time and two TAFE
English teachers attended as observers.

Most participants
were refugees either on Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs) or Permanent
Protection Visas (PPVs). They ranged in age from teens to mid-40s/50s.
Most had lived in Australia for two years or less, although one woman
had lived in Australia for ten years.

What are your experiences
of discrimination and vilification?

At school

One participant,
a young Iraqi woman, who had completed secondary school and was attending
TAFE, talked about feeling uneasy on the TAFE campus after 11 September
2001. "The 'Australian' boys and girls laugh at the Muslim students,
whisper behind our backs and generally make us feel unwelcome..."
The young woman and her friends ignored the teasing, but frictions escalated
to the point where she stopped coming to English classes for a period
of time because she felt so uncomfortable. The young woman also described
how she had been teased in high school by not just Anglo-Australian students,
but students from other ethnic and racial groups. A common taunt was,
'go back to your own country'. Another woman told of how her brother
was abused by a fellow student who told him, "get out of this country
- this is not your country, you are Iraqi ..."

In shopping centres, banks,
government offices etc

Shops and shopping
centres were common sites of discrimination or harassment for Iraqi women
in Shepparton. Some women felt they were unfairly singled out for attention
by staff in supermarkets and stores. One participant believed that Muslim
and Arab women were subject to greater scrutiny by security staff checking
bags at store exits.

"I have noticed
that they do not check other people's bags as often as they check our
bags - that makes us feel humiliated because other people are watching.
They don't do this even to Aborigines, Greeks and others. We are targeted
and they don't know how that makes us feel ..."

Harassment from people
outside shops was also a matter of concern to some participants.

"I went to the
shopping centre with young children and outside the store there was
a group of young Australian kids - boys and girls - who started taunting
me and asking me rudely, 'why are you wearing that thing on your head?'
I was afraid that they were going to take the hijab off my head so I
held on to it tightly... I went to the lady serving me and told her
that there were these kids who were harassing me and that I was afraid.
The lady said to me 'don't worry about it - just ignore it'."

At home

One woman reported
being abused in the front garden of her home because, as a woman who wears
the hijab, she is identifiable as a Muslim which also makes her house
a target for abuse.

"We have to lock
our gates now because after being sworn at and verbally abused by our
neighbours and people driving by - we are afraid. We don't go out unless
we have to and I am scared ..."

The issue of neighbourhood
disputes was raised by one participant as an area of concern. Her concern
was not about neighbourhood disputes between Muslims or Arab Australians
with other non-Muslim or Arab neighbours. Rather, she was concerned about
Australians' reluctance to intervene in disputes between Muslim or Arab
neighbours. She also felt that police only intervene in neighbourhood
disputes involving 'Australians' and that they were afraid to get involved
when an argument involved Muslim or Arab neighbours with each other. "People
who are not Arab or Muslims do not interfere when there is a dispute between
Arabs or Muslims - maybe they are afraid?" The subject of tensions
or rivalries within the Iraqi community in Shepparton surfaced throughout
the consultation.

In the street or public transport

Abuse and harassment
on the street was perceived to have gotten worse after 11 September, Bali
and the Iraq war. One woman retold the story of a friend's son who was
badly beaten by a young Australian man who jumped out of his car and attacked
him on the street in Shepparton. The boy was so badly hurt and traumatised
that he was unable to speak for two days. A friend had taken the licence
plate number of the attacker's car and the boy went to the police to complain
about the assault but no further action was taken.

Other experiences

"From the first
time I arrived in Australia in the camp, I never saw so much discrimination,
mostly by workers. It is not even like that in the Arab world, in Iraq ..."

For many of the women
who attended the consultation, their experiences of discrimination in
Australia were coloured by their initial contact with Australians in immigration
detention centres. Participants were not asked to elaborate on the subject
of immigration detention as the focus of the consultation was on issues
relating to settlement in communities. However, clearly detention had
impacted on how refugees perceived Australians outside detention centres
in communities like Shepparton. One participant was able to differentiate
clearly her own experiences of discrimination from those of her sisters
who had lived in Australia longer and had not experienced life in immigration
detention. She explained, "My sisters have lived here for a while and
their experiences are different to mine with discrimination - but they
still experience it ..."

Temporary Protection Visas
(TPVs)

The TPV provides
refugees with a three year temporary visa and only limited access to the
kinds of settlement support available to other refugees. TPV holders are
not eligible for many types of social security assistance and cannot sponsor
their families to join them in Australia. The lack of stability and insecurity
engendered by the TPV visa system clouded the lives of the Iraqi refugee
women who participated in the consultation.

"Our biggest problem
is the temporary protection visa. Yes we came here by boat which is
against the regulations, but if Australia opened up its doors to us
then we wouldn't have come that way, especially with our children who
are very young. Australia claims that it is a democratic country, but
where is the democracy? What will solve a lot of our problems is getting
rid of this visa ...It abuses our rights as human beings and abuses our
children's rights also."

"The difficult
thing for us is that we are on TPVs for 3 years ...we all came by boat
and there is no sense of stability or permanency. We were refugees who
fled from Iraq to Iran and we never had a sense of stability there.
Now we come to Australia with our children - but it is useless for our
children to learn here because of this so they do other things and find
work."

"At least give
our children a sense of security and stability ..."

"Our children go
to school and ask us all the time 'what's the point of going to school
if we are going to leave here anyway?'"

"We are constantly
being told by others 'Why don't you leave this country now? You are
only here for a little while anyway. Why don't you go back to Saddam
Hussein?'"

Services

"We cannot access
a lot of services because we have TPV ..."

Delivery of social
services such as housing and health were major issues for the women at
the consultation. Many rely heavily on social networks because government
services are inaccessible because of language or cultural difficulties
or they are excluded from certain government services because they hold
only Temporary Protection Visas (TPVs). The TPV provides refugees with
a three year temporary visa and only limited access to the kinds of settlement
support available to other refugees with permanent protection.

Housing

One of the main problems
encountered by the Iraqi refugee women in settling in Shepparton was finding
suitable housing. Participants argued that their search for a suitable
place to live was hampered by discrimination from real estate agents and
from the Department of Housing.

"Real estate agents
especially do not rent to Iraqis and give preferential treatment to
those who are Australians. Many of our applications for rental property
are rejected over and over again ...it was only after great difficulty
and a bit of luck that we found the house we are in now ..."

"In regards to
the Iraqis living here, there are a lot of issues with housing. Many
are like me where I have been looking for a house for over 1 year and
4 months ...no-one has been willing to rent to us and we have not been
given any help from public housing either ..."

The difficulty of
finding suitable housing was further complicated by the size of Muslim
families which can be larger than the average Australian household (the
average Australian household in 2001 was between two and three persons).
Housing larger families was an obvious point of friction between one Iraqi
woman with five children and a staff member at the local Department of
Housing who allegedly told her, "you don't deserve to live amongst
Australians, not with that many kids." The Department of Housing found
the woman a two-bedroom home to rent for her family of 7. When she complained
about overcrowding, the Department of Housing staff instructed her to
"put the little boys in one room and the girls in another room and
the older boy can find his own place to rent." As she felt that it
was completely culturally inappropriate to kick her eldest son out of
the home, she declined to rent from the Department of Housing. In the
end, she eventually found a larger home through social networks and rented
privately.

Health services

The Iraqi women reported
mixed experiences with the Australian health system. There are frequent
misunderstandings between hospital staff and other health service providers
and Muslim women with regards to their religious practices and personal
preferences. Islam does not prevent Muslim women receiving treatment from
male doctors, however it is preferred if there is a qualified female doctor
available to perform the same job. Mixed wards which do not allow for
privacy also pose cultural and ethical issues for Muslim women, especially
if they wear the hijab. Under Islam, women are not permitted to reveal
any part of their body except for their hands and face, to any male except
for their husband or men they may not marry (such as sons or brothers).
Maintaining privacy and modesty in hospital is a major challenge for some
Muslim women. There is one Arabic speaking female doctor in the local
area (and also one Arabic speaking male doctor) who are available for
medical consultations.

Women's experiences
with the hospital system were extremely variable. One woman was extremely
positive about her stay in the Mercy Hospital for Women. "My experience
was very good there - I was given a female doctor and I felt well taken
care of." Another woman gave birth three days after arriving in Australia
at the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

"I had my baby
at this hospital without my family or anyone with me. It was awful and
I felt like I was treated like an animal ...no-one stopped to help me and
ask me if I needed anything - they did not have an interpreter on hand ...I
did not get the support I needed ..."

Another woman whose
sister was admitted to hospital for an emergency operation felt that her
sister had been treated unfairly by the hospital because she was an Iraqi
refugee. She had asked to be put in a private room for cultural and religious
reasons but the hospital would not allow it and she was discharged a day
after her operation before she had fully recovered. Her sister argued,
"The point is that if this was an Australian woman the nurses would
not have treated her that way and would have taken better care of her ..."

Telephone service

One participant spoke
of the difficulties she had encountered in getting access to international
calls through Telstra. The woman claims that Telstra refused to connect
her local line because of her status as a TPV holder. She eventually got
a phone line connected using the name of her sister, who is an Australian
citizen. Telstra cut this line alleging that she had $6,000 in unpaid
international calls. The woman claimed that this was impossible and she
and her sister hired a solicitor to dispute the bill and reconnect their
phone service. Telstra did reconnect their local line but they are still
unable to access international calls and are effectively 'blacklisted'.
The woman believed, "this never would have happened to an Australian
man because he would have gotten his rights ..."

What more could be done to
fight anti-Arab and anti-Muslim prejudice and discrimination?

The meeting proposed
the following strategies for achieving some of the key objectives identified
by the Isma project.

Promoting positive public
awareness

"Educate the children
about other religions at school - even if it is brief"

Providing community support

"Get more Arabic
newspapers in Shepparton - there are none that exist now and it is important
because it is a good tool for education and it gives us news about what
is happening in Australia and overseas so we do not feel so isolated ..."

Informing communities about
their rights

None of the participants
was aware of existing state or federal anti-discrimination laws although
teachers present explained that these laws had been a previous topic of
discussion in English class.

Final note

At the end of the
consultation, after recording of the discussion had ceased, a number of
women came to speak to the HREOC staff running the consultation about
several issues that were not raised during the meeting itself. The women
who approached us for further discussion did not speak during the meeting
because they felt uneasy about speaking in front of some of the other
women in the group. Sectarian differences and divisions relating to geographic
origins (city/country - Northern Iraq/Southern Iraq) appear to be quite
significant. The women explained how these divisions along sectarian or
geographic lines were exacerbated by the differences in visa classes and
residency status of Iraqi refugees in Shepparton.

Many of the women
who approached us at the conclusion of the meeting wanted information
about the progress of their applications for further protection. One TPV
applicant from Iraq who had been detained in Woomera and who had lodged
an application for a PPV before 27 September, 2001 was eager to know the
status of her visa application. She claimed that nobody was keeping them
informed of the process, and as a result rumours were rife that they were
going to be sent back to Iraq. We explained that we were unable to answer
their questions but promised to pass their concerns on to the relevant
authorities.