Source: Berwick News
By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
ASKED if there’s anything else she’d like to say, Naureen Choudhry smiles and answers matter-of-factly.
“I love Australia.”
After 10 years, the Pakistani mother of two will next week officially become an Australian citizen at a special ceremony at the Casey Council chambers.
While her life has seen the Casey Multi-faith Secretary traverse the globe and call several different cities her home, it is in Australia that the Narre Warren resident finds her strongest connection.
Naureen, a practising Muslim, is extremely passionate about interfaith movements and is an active member of the Faith Communities Councils of Victoria (FCCV), and the Jewish Christian Muslim Association (JCMA).
For the latter she travels to schools and speaks to students about her religion, along with representatives of the Christian and Jewish faiths.
“I feel privileged to speak to school students at a grassroots level and offer them an opportunity to ask questions,” Naureen said.
“It’s an excellent program where I think you can literally see barriers being broken down.
“The floor is open to the students … there’s no set agenda, they ask the questions, that’s what makes the agenda.”
As a child Naureen grew up with her family in Kuwait and left the country just before Iraq invaded.
But conflict never seemed far away.
“I didn’t really realise the impact of war but I did understand that it meant a lot of people dying and it wasn’t a good thing, but as such we didn’t see first-hand what was going on,” she said.
“My parents took it in a very calm way …
Categories: Islam