BRITTANIA CLIFFORD-PUGH, 18:
Brittania wants to
break the stereotypes
surrounding her
religion‘I’M A
MUSLIM’
‘PEOPLE STARE; theywatch me, ask me questions
while I’m busking like, “I
thought Muslims couldn’t
play music?” and obviously
if I couldn’t, I wouldn’t. There
are a lot of naïve assumptions
about my religion – it drives
me crazy. Of course I don’t
mind answering them,
because it is important to
educate people if they’re
interested, but it’s still a
very different experience
to anybody else.
I grew up in Toowoomba,Queensland, and went to a
very multicultural primary
school, but then we moved
to a new neighbourhood and
had to move to a different
school, where my siblings
and I were the first people
that were remotely different.
We’re still fully Australian,
but we do have a different
religion and it was a little
bit of a shock. I explained it
to my classmates, and the
teachers were supportive,
which helped.
That’s why I think it is
so important that Muslim
people are represented in
mainstream media, because
there is a strong community
here in Australia and there
are a lot of misconceptions
around. As a Muslim woman,
there are a lot of stereotypes
that exist around what we
can and can’t do. A lot ofpeople assume that you can’t
wear something, can’t sing
certain songs, or even drive.
I just want to show people
that it’s not like that at all.
There’s a lot of freedom – the
same freedom as anyone else.
I just want the rest of
Australia to see my religion
as any other religion. There
is so much talk about Islam,
in particular, and I think it’s
kind of obscured. It’s a set
of beliefs that people define
their lives by and nothing
more than that. I hope one
day Muslims in Australia
will be able to walk down the
street without people staring.
I’m just an 18yearold girl,
like any other.’ >COSMO
CELEBRATES
DIVERSITY