Despite also being
Muslim, I don't seem to suffer from Islamophobia.
It's almost as if I am too busy being black for them to notice.
I am also a Muslim woman.
Muslim women who are not black seem to be subjected
more to Islamophobia abuse.
Personally, I have experienced many microaggressions
and a lot of this is mainly because
of lack of education and ignorance in Irish society.
As black people were welcomed here,
but we cannot step out of line,
have a say or make mistakes like normal human beings
without being told to go back to our countries.
Ireland needs a change, especially in the education
system.
Racism and Islamophobia should not be a once a week
topic and diversity should not be celebrated once a year.
It should be an everyday issue taken seriously by both staff and students.
I would love to see Ireland and Dublin, especially,
the capital city, become a much more culturally diverse place.
Dublin itself as a city full of history,
full of wonderful opportunities and beautiful scenery.
I would like to see different cultures
incorporated more into the city and everyday life.
Promoting religious cultural celebrations
within our communities is something I would appreciate
seeing as would be an opportunity
for all members of our community
to include themselves and really gain knowledge
about the various cultures within their own communities.
Even now that I'm an adult,
I still got racial comments thrown at me from time to time.
but I decide to ignore it and just move on with my day.
I respect my culture a lot, and I attend
cultural events wearing the proper and formal attire.
And yes, sometimes I do get laughed at
on the streets coming out of an event.
But it is something that I'm proud of.
So why should I be disappointed?
One thing that I'm glad
that I achieved in Ireland is gaining a great support system.
I have amazing friends from secondary school
that I can still count on and know that they have my
when I need it.
I moved to Ireland in October 2016.
So I've been living in Ireland for more than five years now.
Although in those five years I have faced a lot of challenges
but I could confidently say they were the best five years of my life.
With God's help, with my parents and with the issue of support,
I was able to do very well in my leaving cert.
After that I was completely ready for my college experience.
I got into UCD and I move to Dublin and university life is just amazing.
I've met a lot of people and I've met a lot of new friends.
I am having an amazing experience in Ireland and I'm loving it.
Hopefully the upcoming days are even better.
Now I feel like I was born and raised in Ireland.
It feels like home.
I live in a neighbourhood
that isn't the safest of places, so I know firsthand how bad things can be.
There are days when the local playground could have beer
bottles smashed on the ground and needles scattered around the place.
As a teen, I know more about this stuff
than many adults do.
I wish there were some way
that you can avoid a situation like this ever arising.
But as time has been going on, more and more young
people are caught up in stuff like this.
So I like to believe that even though there are many cases of drug addiction
here, it is still a safer place than most.
Overall, Ireland always has support available for anyone struggling.
There is always someone you can talk to or ask for help.
I feel like
there's people out there that are so curious about my religion
or "what's that thing on my head?" So if they're curious
and they're asking questions like, I'm so happy to answer them
and it's something very good and that's how we learn from each other.
So yeah, I'm very happy to be part of the Irish community here.
And I just want to say that no matter to what country I go to, every time
I've come back to Ireland, I just feel like it's home
and it's just the most amazing feeling ever.
Irish people are very welcoming and they're very sweet.
So yeah, I'm very proud to be a Palestinian living in Ireland