Noor Mastura is interested in the people who rarely get written about. We talk to her about how to create a world that works for everyone—and why community is the key to humanity
She grew up on the breadline in Singapore, teetering on the edge of homelessness, and bullied relentlessly for the colour of her skin. Life for the adult Noor Mastura couldn’t be more different: she was recently named Singaporean of the Year 2018 by the Straits Times for her work, and has made a difference to countless lives. But the transformation in her fortunes only made Mastura more dedicated than ever to ensuring nobody gets left behind.
Back2Basics, the non-profit she founded, helps grow community support in places where people need it most and addresses the prevalent issue of food insecurity—providing food (including halal meals) for people on the breadline. With her new platform, Being Bravely Women, she speaks to women aged 15 to 30 about controversial and taboo issues ranging from sexual abuse, divorce and self-hatred to misogyny.
“It started out as an online safe space targeted at brown and Muslim women,” she says, on the phone from Oman, where she now lives. “There was a lot of identity exploring and talking about self-worth. I was inspired by my own experience growing up as a brown girl in Singapore. I was ashamed of the colour of my skin and was bullied for it, so I started to hate my Indian identity. It was only two to three years ago that I fully embraced my heritage and got over the brainwashing. I’m now unapologetically who I am, but it has taken a long time to get here—and I want other, younger women, to not go through what I went through.”
Three years ago, Mastura met her husband in a café in Munich. It was love at first sight and they married earlier this year. But she explains that she needed to understand herself and her own insecurities before she could get to the point of fully loving someone else.
Being Bravely Women is a largely online tool, where women apply to be part of her community and then listen to her speeches and read her blogs about relationships, parenthood and life. Living in Oman, where she has moved to be with her husband, Hannan Mian, has been an eye-opening experience for her, and she has continued looking at different aspects of feminism. These include polygamy—and the women who defend it.
“Look, I disagree with a certain type of Western feminism that tells us to remove the hijab, because we will be more liberated that way,” she says, after a pause so she can collect her thoughts. “Personally I wouldn’t be comfortable with polygamy in my own life, but my feminism centres around the idea of choice, and the idea that women should be able to freely act upon those choices for themselves. We need to navigate this space together and understand each other, and not be dogmatic.”
See also: Sharul Channa: "Asian Women Are Taught To Be Coy—And That's Not Funny"