CHENNAI: A chat with Australian-Sudanese-Egyptian Yassmin Abdel-Magied, author of a memoir, Yassmin’s Story, who is in Chennai speaking at colleges about diversity
When you walked out of Lionel Shriver’s keynote speech at the Brisbane Writers’ Festival, an international debate on cultural misappropriation was triggered. Can you tell us why this is important beyond the literary world?
The reasons behind why I walked out were reflective of how these issues are dealt with beyond the literary world. Yes, in the literary world it’s all about context and intention. However, beyond Shriver’s strawman arguments and hyperbole lie bigger issues: structural inequality in society that is cleaved along racial and class lines, a colonialism of identity that has a much deeper psychological impact than people assume, and the reality that rhetoric like Shriver’s often ignores or chooses to talk over, rather than listen to, people who disagree, which leads to the utter polarisation we find ourselves in today.
At 16, you co-founded Youth Without Borders (YWB), which encourages young people’s participation in community-building activities. Many traditional societies, allow for little personal agency among youth. How does YWB challenge that?
As traditionally communal societies have a deep respect and reverence for elders in society, it often translates to young people not having much of a platform or a say in how things are done and run in society. However, that attitude disregards the positives that young people can provide.
Everyone in the organisation is between 15-25 years; meaning that the organisation stays true to its youthful core, through the generations. That being said, it’s not as if we don’t seek advice or choose to disrespect our elders. It’s about becoming empowered enough to make change ourselves, and not have to wait for the elders to hand-hold us through.
Your gorgeous dress sense: the fabrics you use to cover your hair, and your funky glasses, clothes and bold make-up shades. What does fashion mean to you?
Fashion wasn’t something I was interested in, [but eventually], I saw it as a way to play around with the way I presented myself to the world. As I wear a hijab, my clothing choices were always the subject of discussion and scrutiny by anyone and everyone — from parents to governments around the world! Fashion became a way out of that — to surreptitiously say hey, there isn’t just one way a Muslim woman looks. I can be Muslim, a hijabi, and be totally not what you expect… totally, 100% me.
You are also a mechanical engineer on oil rigs. What are your thoughts on environmental impact, and how do they intersect with your work in diversity?
You know, you’re the first person to ever ask me about this directly. To be honest, my views on this are evolving. When I got into the industry, my reasoning was that it was going to happen anyway, and so it might as well be done by someone who cares about the environment enough to do it properly and safely. However, now I’m not so sure it will always happen anyway. So… in short, I definitely think climate change and energy consumption are the engineering challenge of our generation, and I’m figuring out the best way to be a part of the change for the better.