Last week, 27-year-old Fatima Payman made history by becoming the first senator in Australia’s parliament to adopt a hijab.
When Payman thanked her late father, an Afghan refugee who had come to Australia and had since passed away, for his sacrifices a few minutes into her first statement in Parliament, she began to cry.
Payman remarked who would have imagined that today, a young woman born in Afghanistan and the daughter of a refugee, would be present in this chamber? Knowing the hardships her father went through working two jobs, as a security guard and a taxi driver, to ensure he saved up enough money to maintain his family, make ends meet, and guarantee she and her siblings would have the future he was unable to provide for himself.
She also addressed questions regarding her hijab, reiterating that she chose to wear it. Those who choose to counsel her on what to wear, or rate her competency based on my external experience, know that the hijab is her choice, Payman added. She is a representative of present-day Australia since she is youthful and progressive, and her family was born abroad.
Payman continued by talking about prejudice and the girls and women it affects. When young girls want to wear the hijab, she wants them to do so with pride and the understanding that they have the legal right to do so. She won’t pass judgment on someone walking down the street in board shorts and flip-flops. She does not anticipate receiving criticism for the scarf she is donning.
She ended her speech by saying that know that Australia is a place where everyone is welcomed and that they can be part of a united collective, no matter where they are born, no matter which state and territory they are from, no matter what they choose to wear, no matter who they choose to believe in, no matter who they choose to love.
With her mother and three younger siblings, Payman immigrated to Australia in 2003 when she was eight years old. She attended the Australian Islamic College in Perth and continued her education to become a doctor, but she became active in politics. Sadly, Payman’s father, who passed away from leukemia in 2018 at the age of 47, was not around to witness her rise to the position of senator.
She is the third-youngest senator in Australian history, the youngest senator currently in office, and the first Afghan-Australian to be elected. In her speech, Payman discussed how she came to be a member of the federal parliament as well as the nation’s advancements in recognizing its ‘real diversity.’ She asked that would this parliament tolerate a woman donning a hijab to be elected a hundred years ago, let alone ten years ago.
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