Yassmin Abdel-Magied

Yassmin Abdel-Magied (born 1991) is an expatriate Sudanese-Australian media presenter and writer, who had an early career as a mechanical engineer. She was named Young Queenslander of the year in 2010 and Queensland Australian of the Year in 2015 for her engagement in community work. Abdel-Magied has been based in the United Kingdom since 2017, after her comments about Sharia law on TV and a social media post on Anzac Day led to her being widely attacked in Australian media, a petition calling for her sacking from ABC TV, and numerous death threats on social media.

Yassmin Abdel-Magied
Abdel-Magied in 2016
Born1991 (age 28–29)
Khartoum, Sudan
Nationality
Alma materUniversity of Queensland
(BE; Honours)
OccupationMechanical engineer, media presenter, writer
Websiteyassminam

Early life

Family

Yassmin Midhat Abdel-Magied[1] was born in Khartoum, Sudan. As skilled migrants, her parents moved to Brisbane, Australia with her when aged 18 months in late 1992.[2][3] This was after the 1989 Sudanese coup d'état in which the Islamist military toppled the democratically elected government and brought in harsh laws, such as the policing of women's clothing and mandating the speaking and teaching of Arabic in universities.[4][5][6] Abdel-Magied holds dual Australian and Sudanese nationality.[7]

Abdel-Magied's father, Midhat Abdel-Magied,[5] completed a PhD in electrical engineering at Imperial College, London,[2] and subsequently studied information technology in Australia. Yassmin's mother, Faiza El-Higzi,[5] was a qualified architect in Sudan,[8][9] and now holds postgraduate degrees across various disciplines.[10] Yassmin has a younger brother.[6]

In November 2019, Abdel-Magied announced her engagement with a photo of her diamond ring on Instagram.[11]

Education

Abdel-Magied attended primary school at the Islamic College of Brisbane[12] and the independent Christian high school John Paul College, at which there was no policy against wearing a hijab.[13] She studied mechanical engineering at the University of Queensland,[14] graduating with a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering with First-Class Honours in 2011.[15]

Community work, early career and honours (2007–2017)

As high school students in 2007, Abdel-Magied and two others founded "Youth Without Borders" (YWB) in Australia, and she continued as chairperson until 2016.[16][17] In 2007, she was named Young Australian Muslim of the Year.[18] She also participated in other groups/committees[19] and was named Young Queenslander of the Year (2010) [19]

From 2012 until 2016, she worked for multinational engineering companies based in Australia.[20][21] In 2013, Abdel-Magied wrote a journal article about working "On the rigs" in the Griffith Review.[22]

In 2015, Abdel-Magied contributed as a member of the Federal ANZAC Centenary Commemoration Youth Working Group.[23]

After Abdel-Magied was named Queensland Young Australian of the Year in 2015,[24] Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop appointed her to the Council for Australian-Arab Relations (CAAR).[25] In late 2016, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) sent Abdel-Magied, as a CAAR board member, to several Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Egypt and Sudan, to promote Australia.[26]

Media activities (2014–2017)

In December 2014, Abdel-Magied presented a fourteen-minute TED talk at TEDxSouthBank in Brisbane, entitled What does my headscarf mean to you?,[18][27] which was chosen as one of TED's top ten ideas of 2015.[28]

From August 2016 to 1 July 2017, Abdel-Magied presented ABC TV human-interest show Australia Wide[29][30] until the show was cancelled due to ABC program restructuring.[31][32]

Other activities on Australian media have included Triple J (radio),[33] Radio National,[34] F1 Racing (2016 podcast),[35] SBS TV The Truth About Racism (2017)[36] and ABC TV's Hard Chat (2016–2017).[37]

Controversy (2017)

Sharia law comments

In June 2016 on the ABC TV program The Drum, Abdel-Magied said that Sharia law "allows for multiple interpretations... it's about mercy, it's about kindness".[38][39]

In February 2017, Abdel-Magied was a panelist on the Q&A program where she was challenged about her views on Sharia law by politician Jacqui Lambie. Abdel-Magied said "Islam to me is the most feminist religion. We got equal rights well before the Europeans. We don't take our husbands' last names because we ain't their property."[40] She said that Sharia law is as simple as "me praying five times day," and that it says that "you follow the law of the land on which you are on".[41] A right-wing group called "AltCon News" started an online petition after the show, calling for Abdel-Magied to be sacked from hosting the ABC TV show Australia Wide for what they saw as her "pro-Sharia law comments". The petition received more than 15, 000 signatures.[42][43]

Anzac Day post

On Anzac Day, 25 April 2017, Abdel-Magied posted "LEST.WE.FORGET. (Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine...)" on her personal Facebook page. The phrase "Lest we forget" is commonly used in war remembrance services and commemorative occasions in English-speaking countries, in particular Remembrance Day and Anzac Day.[44] It is used to remember fallen military personnel as a mark of respect. Abdel-Magied's words in parentheses referenced refugees held in detention on Manus Island and Nauru, and alleged injustices against Palestinians. The comment was criticised by many on social media as well as Minister for Immigration Peter Dutton. Abdel-Magied deleted the part in parentheses soon after posting it, commenting: "It was brought to my attention that my last post was disrespectful, and for that, I apologise unreservedly."[45] Australian Muslim leaders expressed varying views on the controversy, from support to denouncing her remarks as not reflective of the views of all Muslims.[46][47][48]

The following day, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce suggested the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) should take action against Abdel-Magied,[49] and the ABC also became a target of the right-wing media.[50] The ABC argued that Abdel-Magied's personal opinions did not represent those of the national broadcaster.[51]

Consequences

On 3 July 2017, Abdel-Magied announced in a tweet that she was moving to London, "to partake in the Aussie rite of passage". She did not specify her reasons for leaving, but after arriving in London said that it had been "exhausting" to have been the subject of controversy and that she had felt betrayed by her home country, after criticism aimed at her had been "visceral" and "more about who I am than about what is said".[52][53]

An essay originally published by the Griffith Review in April 2017 was reprinted in The Guardian on 6 July, along with a short introduction describing the extremity of the behaviours to which she had been subjected. She had been trolled relentlessly after her Q&A appearance and Anzac Day post, including being sent videos of beheadings and rapes with suggestions that the same should happen to her. She was subjected to daily death threats on social media as well as abusive telephone calls, forcing her to change her phone number, move house and delete social media accounts.[54][55] She later said that she had become "Australia's most publicly hated Muslim".[5]

Some continued to threaten her publicly, including on National Radio; "She has fled the country and is blaming all of us," Prue MacSween said. "She says she’s been betrayed by Australia and didn’t feel safe in her own country. Well actually she might have been right there, because if I had seen her I would have been tempted to run her over mate.".[56]

Other commentators said that she had been the victim of "character assassination", Islamophobia[57] and her feminism.[58] Susan Carland likened the media frenzy after the Q&A incident to a witch-hunt, saying that The Australian ran four front pages as well as 26 editorials and opinion pieces, and every major news site in the country had run at least one piece on it. The Murdoch-owned Newscorp media had been particularly vicious in their attacks.[59][60] Randa Abdel-Fattah wrote "Abdel-Magied has come to represent everything that Islamophobia hates – but actually loves – about 'the Muslim problem' ", and that her critics would have preferred her to stay in Australia.[61]

Eponym

In April 2019, comedian and writer Sami Shah presented a series of radio programmes in which he investigated the concept and practice of free speech in Australia. He reported that his interviewees who were people of colour all reported experience of or a fear of "getting Yassmined", and also drew comparison with the Adam Goodes controversy in 2015.[62]

Post-relocation career (2018– )

Living in London, she continued to take her security very seriously, taking measures to protect her online and telephone presence. In 2018 she said there had been "a concerted effort to ruin my life, and nobody stopped them. Not the government, not advocacy groups, no one. I was out there alone”.[63]

In 2018, Abdel-Magied presented six six-minute episodes of an Islamic headwear fashion program on ABC iview.[64] In April of the same year, Abdel-Magied appeared in her acting debut in the SBS TV series Homecoming Queens, made in her Australian hometown of Brisbane, about the lives of two young women as they dealing with life after major illness.[65] Abdel-Magied played a character described as "a conceited social media lifestyle guru".[66]:para 10

At the Melbourne Writers Festival in August 2018, Abdel-Magied spoke of the grief she felt, for the loss of both her engineering career as well as her youthful optimism and innocence.[67]

In April 2019, Abdel-Magied spoke on The Bookshow on ABC Radio National about her debut novel You Must Be Layla. The target audience is young readers, and the plot centres on a Sudanese girl who struggles to fit into her new private school.[68][69] She spoke of the additional freedom afforded by fiction in expressing themes important to her.[70][71]

On 23 April 2018, Abdel-Magied appeared on the UK-based podcast The Guilty Feminist on the topic of identity.[72]

Works
  • Abdel-Magied, Yassmin (2012). Redefining the Narrative : Thoughts & Questions of a Young Australian Muslim Finding Her Path. Pandora Electronic Collection. OCLC 864708436. Blog.
  • Abdel-Magied, Yassmin (April 2013). "On the rigs". Griffith Review (Edition 40: Women & Power). ISBN 9781922079978.
  • Abdel-Magied, Yassmin (2014). Paddy O'Reilly (ed.). It Happened in a Holden : A Celebration of Holdens and the Australians Who Drive, Ride, Love and Bicker in Them. South Melbourne: Affirm Press. Story in a collection.
  • Abdel-Magied, Yassmin (2016). Yassmin's Story: Who Do You Think I Am?. Australia: Vintage Books. ISBN 9780857986153. OCLC 951650673. Biography.
  • Abdel-Magied, Yassmin (April 2017). "A little too close to the sun: Advocacy in the modern age". Griffith Review (Edition 56: Millenials Fight Back). ISBN 9781925498356. (reprinted on The Guardian website on 6 July 2017)
  • Abdel-Magied, Yassmin (6 July 2017). "What are they so afraid of? I'm just a young brown Muslim woman speaking my mind". The Guardian.
  • Abdel-Magied, Yassmin (Summer 2017). Jonathon Green (ed.). "Meanjin". 76 (4). Carlton, Victoria Meanjin. Yassmin Abdel-Magied recounts her many, failed, attempts to leave Australia Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  • Abdel-Magied, Yassmin (28 August 2018). "I wanted to make jokes about my destroyed career, but all I felt was grief". The Guardian. Edited version of a speech given at the Melbourne Writers Festival.
  • Abdel-Magied, Yassmin (2019). You Must be Layla. North Sydney: Penguin. ISBN 9780143788515. OCLC 1089827087.[73] YA Fiction.
  • Khan, Mariam, ed. (21 February 2019). "Life Was Easier Before I Was Woke". It's Not About the Burqa. Contributor: Yassmin Midhat Abdel-Magied. Pan MacMillan. ISBN 9781509886401.[1]
  • Busby, Margaret, ed. (8 March 2019). New Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Writing by Women of African Descent. Contributor: Yassmin Abdel-Magied. Myriad Editions. ISBN 9781912408009.
gollark: Too incoherent, beeize you.
gollark: "Good" and "evil" affect your emotional state through something something bits of the nervous system and are thus drugs.
gollark: Actually, it changes your emotional state. So it is.
gollark: Greetings³boi.
gollark: Water isn't a drug due to being present in some drug things. Thus, apiologically, glucose cannot be food due to being part of food.

References
  1. It's Not About the Burqa: Muslim Women on Faith, Feminism, Sexuality and Race. ASIN 1509886400.
  2. Abdel-Magied, Yassmin (2016). "1". Yassmin's Story: Who do you Think I am? (paperback). North Sydney: Penguin Random House. p. 7. ISBN 9780857986153.
  3. Abdel-Magied, Yassmin (2016). "1". Yassmin's Story: Who do you Think I am? (paperback). North Sydney: Penguin Random House. p. 30. ISBN 9780857986153.
  4. "MEET: YASSMIN ABDEL-MAGIED". THE PIN. 2015. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
  5. Fyfe, Melissa (18 August 2017). "Yassmin Abdel-Magied on becoming 'Australia's most publicly hated Muslim'". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  6. "Yassmin's family in early 1995 after arriving as one of first Sudanese families in Brisbane three years earlier". ABC News. 11 February 2016. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  7. Schetzer, Alana (31 January 2017). "Travel ban exemption promised but has the damage to Australia's dual nationals been done?". Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  8. Flitton, Daniel (3 January 2011). "Fired up to be the first female, Muslim F1 driver". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  9. Abdel-Magied, Yassmin (2016). "1". Yassmin's Story: Who do you Think I am? (paperback). North Sydney: Penguin Random House. p. 17. ISBN 9780857986153.
  10. Faiza El Higzi's journey from Sudan to modern Australia. Conversations with Richard Fidler. ABC. 7 August 2012. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  11. "Yassmin Abdel-Magied has announced she's engaged". NewsComAu. 11 November 2019. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
  12. Abdel-Magied, Yassmin (2016). "2: Early Days". Yassmin's Story: Who do you Think I am? (paperback). North Sydney: Penguin Random House. p. 38. ISBN 9780857986153.
  13. Abdel-Magied, Yassmin (2016). "6: High School". Yassmin's Story: Who do you Think I am? (paperback). North Sydney: Penguin Random House. p. 97. ISBN 9780857986153.
  14. "Yassmin Abdel-Magied – IMechE". www.imeche.org. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  15. "UQ alumnus awarded Young Australian of the Year for Queensland". Alumni & Community. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  16. "Meet the Board of Directors: Yassmin Abdel-Magied". youthwithoutborders.com.au. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  17. "History – Youth Without Borders".
  18. "Yassmin Abdel-Magied". Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology, University of Queensland. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  19. "Outstanding Suncorp Queenslanders of the Year revealed". Queensland Government Media Statement. 1 June 2010. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  20. Abdel-Magied, Yassmin. "Yassmin Abdel-Magied". LinkedIn. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  21. Engineers, Institution of Mechanical. "Australian YM Profile- Yassmin Abdel-Magied". nearyou.imeche.org. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  22. On the Rigs. Griffith Review. April 2013. ISBN 9781922079978. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  23. "Yassmin Abdel-Magied at the 34th John Paul College Speech Night". John Paul College. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  24. "Yassmin's Story". Australian of the Year Awards. 2015. Retrieved 16 February 2017.
  25. "Council for Australian-Arab Relations Board Members". Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  26. "Senate Debates: Questions without Notice, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade". Open Australia. 16 February 2017. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
  27. "What does my headscarf mean to you?". TEDxSouthBank. December 2014. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  28. "Yassmin Abdel-Magied (bio)". Yassminam. Retrieved 8 April 2019.
  29. "Australia Wide". ABC TV. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  30. "Australia Wide, Episodes". Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  31. "ABC statement about Australia Wide". 25 May 2017. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  32. "Australia Wide". ABC News. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  33. "Mornings with Zan". 24 October 2014. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  34. "Life Matters". 1 May 2013. Retrieved 27 May 2017.
  35. "Motor Mouth". www.abc.net.au.
  36. "Face Up To Racism: What you need to know". SBS. 1 February 2017. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
  37. Guthrie, Susannah (21 December 2017). "Yassmin Abdel-Magied has a controversial Hard Chat with Tom Gleeson". The New Daily. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  38. Hall, Eleanor (15 June 2016). "The Drum Wednesday June 15". The Drum. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
  39. "On Sharia law". The Drum. 15 June 2016. Retrieved 15 February 2017.
  40. Nair, Ajay (14 February 2017). "'Not in this country!' Australian senator and activist in HEATED clash over Sharia law". Express.co.uk. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
  41. "Blackouts, Childcare, and Migration". Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). 13 February 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2017.
  42. "Online petition calls for ABC to sack Yassmin Abdel-Magied". The Daily Telegraph. 26 April 2017.
  43. Palin, Megan (21 February 2017) "Thousands call for ABC to sack TV host over 'pro sharia law' comments", news.com.au.
  44. "ANZAC Day Commemoration Committee". Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  45. Rawsthorne, Sally (25 April 2017). "ABC presenter Yassmin Abdel-Magied forced to delete Anzac Day post asking Australians to think about Manus Island and Palestine". The Daily Telegraph. Sydney. Retrieved 25 April 2017.
  46. "'White Christians have no compassion' says Muslim businessman in support of besieged ABC presenter". Yahoo News. 28 April 2017. Retrieved 29 April 2017.
  47. "Muslim sheikh says ABC should sack Yassmin Abdel-Magied after 'disrespectful' Anzac Day remarks". Yahoo News. 26 April 2017. Retrieved 30 April 2017.
  48. Loussikian, Kylay, Miles Godfrey & Sally Rawsthorne (26 April 2017). "Yassmin Abdel-Magied: ABC activist's vile anti-Diggers remark slammed as 'deeply reprehensible'". The Daily Telegraph. Sydney. Retrieved 27 April 2017.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  49. "Yassmin Abdel-Magied: ABC can't sweep presenter's Anzac Day controversy under the carpet, Joyce says". ABC News. 26 April 2017. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
  50. Alcorn, Gay (2 June 2017). "We need a strong ABC more than ever: It cannot pander to rightwing attacks". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
  51. Carmody, Broede (26 April 2017). "ABC stands by Yassmin Abdel-Magied after Facebook post sparks Anzac Day outrage". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  52. "Yassmin Abdel-Magied says Australia happy to accept those who 'toe the line'". Australian Broadcasting Corporation News. 12 July 2017. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  53. "Yassmin's gap year". News Corp Australia. 3 July 2017.
  54. Abdel-Magied, Yassmin (6 July 2017). "What are they so afraid of? I'm just a young brown Muslim woman speaking my mind". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  55. Abdel-Magied, Yassmin (April 2017). "A little too close to the sun: Advocacy in the modern age". Griffith Review (Edition 56: Millenials Fight Back). ISBN 9781925498356. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  56. Zhou, Naaman (12 July 2019). "I'd be tempted to run over Yassmin Abdel-Magied, commentator says". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  57. Chalmers, Max (8 July 2017). "Why Yassmin Abdel-Magied had to be Destroyed". New Matilda. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  58. Zevallos, Zuleyka (30 May 2017). "Islamophobia and the Public Persecution of Feminist Yassmin Abdel-Magied". Other Sociologist. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  59. Carland, Susan (25 February 2017). "Yassmin Abdel-Magied and the Australian crucible". The Saturday Paper. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  60. Donnelly, Keryn (27 February 2017). "Susan Carland condemns "frenzied, paranoid witch hunt" against Yassmin Abdel-Magied". MamaM!a. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  61. Abdel-Fattah, Randa (6 July 2017). "Despite the rhetoric, here's why Islamophobes don't want Yassmin to go". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 12 April 2019.
  62. Shah, Sami (13 April 2019). "Shutup 03 — Getting Yassmined" (audio). Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Earshot. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  63. "Yassmin Abdel-Magied opens up about why she left Australia". News.com.au. 29 June 2018. Retrieved 1 August 2019.
  64. "Hijabistas". ABC iview. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  65. "Controversial author Yassmin Abdel-Magied takes on new role". news.com. 2 April 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  66. McManus, Bridget (30 March 2018). "Free-to-air pick: Homecoming Queens ticks all the boxes". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  67. Abdel-Magied, Yassmin (28 August 2018). "I wanted to make jokes about my destroyed career, but all I felt was grief". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  68. "Yassmin Abdel-Magied makes her first foray in to fiction". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The Book Show. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
  69. "Puffin snaps up Abdel-Magied's fiction debut | The Bookseller". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
  70. Walker, Alice (7 April 2019). "Yassmin Abdel-Magied turns to fiction to process public backlash with novel You Must Be Layla". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 7 April 2019.
  71. Randone, Amanda (30 July 2019). "Why Australia's 'Most Hated Muslim' Turned To YA Fiction To Heal". Bustle. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
  72. "95. Identity with Yassmin Abdel-Magied and Liv Francis-Cornibert". The Guilty Feminist. 23 April 2018. Retrieved 8 April 2019.(Full podcast.)
  73. Nguyen, Giselle Au-Nhien (7 February 2019). "You Must Be Layla (Yassmin Abdel-Magied, Penguin)". Books+Publishing. Retrieved 29 March 2019.

Further reading
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.