In the spirit of harmony, the Studio 10 television presenter posted the picture on Twitter to support the WISH campaign – which stands for Women in Solidarity with Hijabs.
Alongside the image Jessica wrote: “My Muslim sisters and I share the same hopes and dreams for our families – to live in a compassionate, peaceful and multicultural country. Now more than ever we have to stop fear and ignorance from feeding racism and hatred. We are all Australians.”
Australian women of all faiths are being encouraged to share “hijab selfies” to help destigmatise the traditional Muslim dress.
Radio presenter Meshel Laurie also donned a headscarf and posted a picture on Twitter which she captioned: “Love & Respect to Australian hijabis!”
And the trend has even moved into the political sphere with Labor MP Julie Owens showing her support too.
@MariamVeiszadeh @ajwildlife An old one & a new one – taken today in my office. Happy to support #WISH. pic.twitter.com/RiD0NzhfJz
Recently a WISH Facebook page was started and over the past week it has attracted more than 18,000 ‘likes’.
The WISH Facebook page already has over 18,000 followers.
The campaign was started by lawyer and activist Mariam Veiszadeh who told news.com.au that she felt compelled to do something when she heard of Muslim women in her community being subject to harassment and abuse.
“I’d been hearing about absolutely horrific examples of Muslim women being abused on the streets, mothers who’ve had their prams kicked, friends who are too fearful to leave their homes,” she told the news website.
“Once these incidents were brought to people’s attention through that group, the response was just overwhelming and it came largely from Australian women wanting to help.”
The campaign comes at a time when Prime Minister Tony Abbott was recently questioned on what he thought of the burqa.
The PM told a crowd of reporters he found the burqa “confronting” and wished “it wasn’t worn”.
“Frankly, I wish it was not worn but we are a free country, we are a free society and it is not the business of Government to tell people what they should and shouldn’t wear,” the PM said.
In relation to questions about whether the conservative garment should be allowed to be worn in Parliament House the PM said: “It should be governed by the rules that are appropriate for a secure building and obviously people need to be identifiable in a secure building such as this.”
Ms Veiszadeh said she “fully supports” the current dialogue about the garment being worn when it could pose a security issue.
“Part of the Muslim faith is to follow the laws and regulations of the country that you live in,” she said.
“But when it comes to banning a garment, that’s just ridiculous. The irony is people are concerned men are controlling women over how they should dress when it should be up to the individual, but by banning a garment, that’s just another group of men telling women what they’re not allowed to wear.”
