Fierce Women of Montreal: Fariha Naqvi-Mohamed
From a personal blog to her own segment at CityNews Montreal, Naqvi-Mohamed has created a remarkable body of work in the journalism world. She also happens to wear a hijab.
Naqvi-Mohamed had a childhood dream of breaking into the world of journalism, a dream she worked hard to achieve throughout her life. As she grew older and more determined to succeed in her passion, her faith grew stronger as well. At the age of 17, she decided to wear the hijab.
Coming from a secular family, Naqvi-Mohamed’s decision was not initially well-received. “I was the only person in my family to wear the hijab” she says, “I actually had to fight [them] to wear it”. While her family believed that this decision would present an obstacle to her dreams, Naqvi-Mohamed would not renounce her passion for her faith or for journalism. Instead, she decided to do both.
Naqvi-Mohamed studied Journalism and Communications at Concordia University. She then got married and had two children, while working as a freelance reporter in Ontario. After having her second child and moving to Montreal, she realized that there was still nobody who looked like her in the news industry and decided to take initiative. In 2011, she launched her renowned diversity blog CanadianMomEh.com.
In choosing to lead her own journalistic endeavor, Naqvi-Mohamed taught herself every skill required to run her platform. She researched and found learning tools and resources, some as simple as YouTube videos, allowing her to be qualified for and in charge of every responsibility. She was the writer, editor, creative director, camerawoman, photographer. Her impressive work ethic and self-discipline helped ensure her blog’s success as it garners approximately 17 million views today.
When the Charter of Quebec Values, otherwise known as Bill 60, was introduced under Premier Pauline Marois in 2013, Naqvi-Mohamed wrote an article exposing the underlying effects of this policy on her blog, “as a fiercely proud hijab-clad Quebecois woman” she says. That article marked a significant moment for Naqvi-Mohamed as it garnered roughly 50 000 views overnight, an unprecedented readership for her at the time. She was invited on Breakfast Television Montreal the next day and was the first hijab-clad woman they have ever had on their show. It was only the first ceiling she would shatter.
As she was the first, she had to navigate many misguided questions and comments, as well as struggles on where to put her mic and how to touch up her makeup. However, Naqvi-Mohamed observed that everyone adapted, even though this was new and different to them, because they wanted to hear what she had to say. She still faces discriminatory behavior today, despite her success, but she continues to respond to it with her grace, letting her hard work speak for her.
According to CityNews Toronto, in 2016, Ginella Messa was the first woman in Canada to anchor a newscast while wearing a hijab. Fariha Naqvi-Mohamed was the second.
In September 2018, she became the first hijab wearing woman in Quebec history to be a news reporter on mainstream television, with her DiverseCity segment with CityNews Montreal. And the second in Canada.
Naqvi-Mohamed has always been a champion of diversity and inclusion, as well as a strong advocate for the value of hard work. She recalled an incident where she faced prejudiced reaction to her being the one in charge in one of her first stories for DiverseCity. She brought a cameraman with her to an interview at a café, one of the rare occasions when she uses a cameraman for her interviews. Upon seeing a hijab wearing woman and a white man, the interviewee presumed that the cameraman was her boss, shook his hand, took his coat and gave it to Naqvi-Mohamed. He offered the cameraman a drink, to which he responded, “You’ll have to ask my boss”. The interviewee then stepped back. “When will he get here?” he asked.
She says that this is her story that needs to be told. “We can’t pretend that these subtleties, these microaggressions, this discrimination doesn’t exist because I face it all the time. […] I still get this all the time”. She preaches poise and eloquence and wants for the new generation of aspiring journalists who look like her, and anyone who looks “different”, to strive for excellence. She hopes for a future where the color of your skin will no longer be equivalent to your worth or skill, or ability to succeed.
Naqvi-Mohamed acknowledges that she will experience more instances of discrimination for being the first. She holds herself to a high standard but also hopes that those who come after her will not need to go through the same hurdles that she did. “Everything’s magnified [because I am the first]”, she says, “but I want there to be others”.
Covid-19: Redefining the habits of a social animal
How does a global pandemic in a time when the world is a global village reshape human behaviour?
In the age of express shipping and instant ramen, time has ground to a halt, frozen as a Canadian winter.
Covid-19 has brought the world to its knees, a borderless invisible menace that has befallen heads of state and celebrities alike. It has sent human beings of all wakes of life scurrying into their homes. The waves of contagion do not discriminate, and they have united everyone behind a conscious effort to be safe and healthy. This virus has shifted social practices on a global scale, forcing societies with different cultural habits to explore new, health-conscious ways to socialize with their fellow humans and maintain their sanity.
Isolation and social distance have greatly impacted the mental health of entire generations simultaneously. Our elders are our most vulnerable and were the first to be isolated. They’ve been grappling with the challenge of our collective confinement for longer than most. The youngest will be the most unsettled; this pandemic will mark an entire generation and will be used to explain their adult quirks. In forty years, when a loud cough fills a supersonic metro car with tense silence, it will be because those are all the children of Covid-19. Those in between are bending every which way to ensure that we come out of this as whole as possible.
Self-care is at the forefront of many quarantine conversations. Therapists are offering video sessions. People are less focused on being productive and are instead turning inwards, taking stock of their emotional and mental wellbeing. Many have taken to artistic forms of expression such as colouring and painting to steady their anxiety and soothe their worried minds. Others have decided to learn a new language or start a new hobby, taking this time to work on their self-growth.
Retail therapy and instant gratification have taken a backseat to patiently waiting for the dough to proof so we can turn it into bread hours later. People are slowing down and sitting in their boredom, tackling a long list of forgotten new year’s resolutions.
With the practice of social distancing becoming the catchphrase of this pandemic, many have emphasized a distinction between social and physical distancing. Practicing safe and clean physical interactions does not mean we need to sacrifice our social nature or our sense of community. With all the tools at our disposal, being social no longer demands our physical presence with one another. The need to create community in quarantine has revealed the true value of social media and online platforms in the digital age. There has been a concerted effort to keep people socially engaged with others and with activities they enjoyed before a worldwide pandemic canceled everything.
From the hashtags uniting everyone under the same umbrella of Covid-related experiences to teachers, trainers, dancers, chefs and people of various skillsets offering online classes and live sessions. The social media movement to move your passion or business to an online presence has never been stronger. The amount of online resources available for working, studying, playing and dancing from home has never been greater. Though physically distant, people have never been more connected.
Though time feels like it is standing still, we still greet a new day every morning. People have adapted to this pandemic, as humans do, in every aspect of their lives. Employees work from home. Essential workers wear gloves and masks. Classes and lectures are all moved online. Zoom workouts and hangouts are the new normal. Everyone is an amateur chef and baker. Artists and DJs are holding live concerts for virtual audiences from the safety of their homes.
Toilet paper and disinfecting wipes are the new currency, and people are seeing the true value of the medical and sanitation fields. Governments are mobilizing consistent cleaning and power washing efforts and cities all over the world are seeing lower levels of air pollution.
This is the biggest collective human effort to pivot that we have seen at this scale. The well-known meme turned into a life strategy for dealing with a global crisis. People have developed a slower pace of living and are learning to reevaluate the importance of things like seasonal shopping and the need for fast-paced action and busy lifestyles. Are all of these changes for now or for good? In one year, will the smell of a freshly baked loaf of bread still envelop our home? Or will we once again be consumed by a capitalist society’s need to generate productivity in every rushed moment?
A path to legalizing psychedelics in Canada?
As the legalization of marijuana becomes mainstream in many Western countries, how will that outlook react to a push for the legalization of illicit drugs?
In October 2018, Canada legalized the recreational use of cannabis. As this policy is implemented and develops the legal cannabis market, there is a growing popular sentiment to decriminalize psychedelics in Canada.
On August 14th 2020, a petition garnering 14,910 signatures to decriminalize the “use, growing, or sharing of any plant or fungi, where an established record of traditional use exists” was certified for the House of Commons, sponsored by MP Paul Manly. Once it is officially presented in the House, they will have 45 days to present a response.
How can Canada pave the path to decriminalizing psychedelics? There is much to be learned from the different approaches to decriminalizing and legalizing cannabis in various countries such as Australia and Portugal, as well as in Canada.
While Canada was the second country to legalize recreational cannabis for adults, Portugal’s drug policy was implemented in July 2001. According to Tiago S. Cabral whose article was published in the Drug Science, Policy and Law Journal in 2017, it was considered one of the most successful in the world. He explains that the legal framework for Portugal’s drug policy was the assertion that cannabis users were not criminals, but instead individuals who suffered from an illness and needed aid and treatment.
Portugal’s policy did not constitute formal legalization as did Canada’s. The government opted instead to decriminalize “the consumption, acquisition and possession for personal use of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances”. In doing so, Portugal detangled the relationship between drug use and criminality. However, the policy simply decriminalizes drug use by changing from a criminal offense to an administrative offense. It is punishable with fines or a referral to a committee, Commission for the Deterrence of Drug Addiction, that determines whether the user is an addict or not. Should the user be found an addict, the committee recommends a treatment plan and facility.
Similarly, Australian jurisdictions, between 1987 and 2004, progressively decriminalized or depenalized the possession of cannabis for personal use with variations in terms of specifications such as permitted number of plants. Philippe Cyrenne and Marian Shanahan published an article for the Canadian Public Policy journal in the University of Toronto Press titled Towards a Regulatory Framework for the Legalization of Cannabis in March 2018. They discuss several factors relevant to the development of a regulatory framework for the legalization of cannabis and explore country-specific policies.
Though it is still considered a criminal offense, the framework in certain Australian jurisdictions for decriminalized personal use of cannabis punishes offenders with a civil penalty called a Cannabis Expiation Notice. In other states, depenalization results in diversionary tactics, substituting criminal charges for treatment. The Australian framework is similar to Portugal’s in that a value is afforded to the option of treatment for drug users who are determined to be needing it.
Canada differs from these two approaches in that the Canadian model officially legalized recreational use of cannabis for adults. The Canadian government created a highly regulated legal cannabis market. Rules and strict regulations maintained the order of the Cannabis Act and allowed for cannabis use across Canada to be safe and supported by the government. Canada’s approach to the issue of cannabis was strategic and is currently demonstrating its success.
As stated in The Final Report of the Task Force on Cannabis Legalization and Regulation, the main concerns were “keeping cannabis out of the hands of children and youth and keeping profits out of the hands of organized crime”. In Canada as well as Australia and Portugal, cannabis use is not considered to be a criminal issue but a public health issue instead. That is the lens used to establish the framework of decriminalization and legalization in each of these countries and each one has seen its own successes.
In a Truffle Report article discussing the recent Canadian report titled Decriminalization for Simple Possession of Illicit Drugs: Exploring Impacts on Public Safety & Policing, Jordan Pike discussed the advantages and limits in the report’s decriminalization approach. The illicit drugs concerned in this report include psychedelics, and as the recent petition for decriminalization demonstrates, this issue is of current importance for Canadian citizens.
The core concept to be adapted from the three approaches to cannabis decriminalization and legalization is the consideration that this issue is one of public health. Many scientific studies discuss the negative effects of criminalizing drug use in terms of a growing black market as well as a failure to decrease the number of deaths caused by drug overdose or the number of users in general. As seen after Portugal’s drug policy was implemented (which did not significantly distinguish cannabis from other drugs), the consumption of narcotic drugs and psychedelics decreased, as did the number of deaths by overdose. There was also no increase in youth consumption, though the number of adults who seek medical treatment did increase.
If decriminalization of illicit drugs were to be established, the framework for cannabis legalization offers beneficial approaches that should be applied for illicit drugs as well. There should definitely be studies of and considerations made for the different chemical properties of psychedelics compared to cannabis and the legislation should reflect those differences. However, the petition mentions the use of psychedelics for therapeutic and medicinal purposes, which can be strictly established and regulated.
Whether in the short term for simple possession or in the long term for production and distribution regulated by the government, the process to decriminalize the use of psychedelics need not be too different from the methods employed to legalize cannabis in Canada and decriminalize it in Australia and Portugal.
As for the petition, the House of Commons will hear it in session as of September 23rd and will then present their response in the following 45 days.