Winter Edition 2019

PROFILE
“When I made it to the final
12, he said just don’t get
kicked out in the first week!”
know you were bullied!”. Nadiya explained that her
experiences have made her stronger. And she firmly
believes that children should grow up knowing
their parents aren’t superhuman. “It’s natural to feel
vulnerable, and the world is very different to the one
I grew up in. Bullying comes into our homes. Flick
your phone on and there is abuse hurled while you’re
sat on the couch in pyjamas”. She believes that it
isn’t that anxiety is new, but that society is braver
talking about it. Not that Nadiya feels she will ever
discuss these issues with her own parents. Before
they watched the documentary they didn’t know
anything about their daughter’s problems.
“There is no vocabulary in our community
for mental health. In English I can say
“anxiety” or “panic”. And it’s a British thing
too, with the “keep calm and carry on” thing. I’m
over that, and I bet those posters are coming down”.
As well as moving away from mental health taboos,
Nadiya is breaking away from other traditions she
grew up with. She feels her parents hate that she’s
the one doing it, but she says she’s done with things
like men and children eating before the women: “A
dining table is for everyone to eat around together –
why should women get the scraps at the end?”.
Although Nadiya says she felt empowered on
becoming a mother to her two sons, she admits
to really wanting a girl and was overjoyed when
her third child was a daughter. “I want her to be
everything that I couldn’t be, and have everything
I didn’t have. She will have her own hurdles to
knock down but I want her to know that
mummy was there first and knocked down
as many as she could”. Nadiya tells a
heartbreaking tale about a theatre trip
when her daughter was younger. After
the performance, she was asked why, ››
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