Cigdem Aydemir, 27, a Muslim, artist and high-school art teacher, said she felt ''completely offended and insulted'' when she saw the mural pop up in her neighbourhood. The work of a local artist, Sergio Redegalli, the piece adorns a wall of his studio facing the street and the busy rail line.
''My sister-in-law wears a burqa … my mother wears a veil,'' she said. ''I wore a veil for 10 years of my life. I think everyone has the right to wear whatever they want on their body and that kind of diversity needs to be protected.''
The mural says nothing about people's right to wear a burqa. It just suggests that they should refuse to wear one.
Aydemir went to the police and then the council to try to make the complaint, but as the mural was painted on private property neither could intervene. She lodged her concerns with the Anti-Discrimination Board, who this week notified Redegalli.
He said he had painted it to open debate about the burqa, but now felt his right to freedom of expression was on the line.
Yup, he's right about that.
But Aydemir said: ''It's Islamophobic; it's feeding the racist and sexist attitudes we have in our society.''
I call bullshit. It has nothing to do with racism. Well, it can be assiociated with racism in some people but they are really two separate issues.
The image has drawn fire from locals, and has been defaced at least 20 times. The former Marrickville mayor, Sam Iskander, said in September the mural ''goes against the values which the Marrickville community has believed in and practised for generations''.
Once again I call bullshit. Generations ago in suburbs like Marrickville racism was commonplace, as it was in many other places. So, even if this mural was racist it would not necessarily be "against the values which the Marrickville community has believed in and practised for generations".
However, since it is not actually racist and is simply expressing a dislike of a particular item of dress, all the mayor can possibly mean is that the Marrickville community believes that nobody should publicly say that they don't like something that someone else approves of. Not a particularly inspiring value IMO.
Topic: burqa mural Complaint