Khadro Mohamed is a writer and poet from Wellington. In this video, My Hijab and Me, she speaks about her experiences wearing a hijab.

“I have applied to jobs and they might love me over the phone but the minute they see me, it's a very different reaction. I’ve had people say things like, ‘But you sound so Kiwi! But you don't look so Kiwi’. 

“I didn't have the tools for it before, but now I would say, ‘Well what does being Kiwi mean to you?’”

When schoolgirl Hoda Al-Jamaa was attacked at Otago Girls’ High School earlier this year and had her hijab ripped off, Khadro says she felt very sad.

“How unsafe did she feel, even before the incident? Our experiences are constantly overlooked and belittled and things like this happen and we aren't listened to.”

“I felt like that 15 year old girl who was in high school, who also felt very out of place. Feeling insecure all came back, feeling this could happen, this could happen anywhere, have we really come that far?”

Producer: Francesca Mackenzie

Director: Ahmed Osman

Camera: Tom van den Brink

Editor: Chris Hines

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