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For eight years I’ve served Australia. The racist hate and disgusting abuse still crushes me
I gave up my birthright to run for office
I’ve been called a maggot, a cockroach, a whore and a cow – but I’m not going anywhere.
- Mehreen Faruqi
- The Guardian
“You are not really Australian, Mehreen.
Why don’t you fuck off to the cesspit you came from?”
“Piss off back to your shithole of Pakistan, ya maggot.”
This is not something I expected to hear – ever, let alone in Australia.
Yet from day one of my public life, I have felt pummelled and beaten almost every day by this unrelenting demand to go back to where I came from.
I feel the heavy weight of this hate physically bearing down on me, crushing me, squeezing the air out of my lungs until I…