Heart of the Nation: No cossie required

Wearing the veil has never stopped Umm Malik frolicking in the surf. ‘I spent my whole childhood doing this!’ she says.

Cooling off: Umm Malik, left, and her friends. Picture: Ian Kenins

It was a sweltering February day in Melbourne, and Umm Malik – who was in town for her graduation at Deakin University – suggested going for a drive on the Great Ocean Road, and having a swim. Wearing the veil has never stopped her frolicking in the surf. “I spent my whole childhood doing this!” says the spirited 24-year-old. “But I don’t think my two friends had ever been in the ocean before.” That’s Umm Malik on the left, introducing them to it at Cumberland River Beach near Lorne. Photographer Ian Kenins just happened to be driving past; when he saw this scene he screeched to a halt, jumped out with his camera and ran over to ask if he could photograph them. Doesn’t the body language in this shot – distilled down to the ­positions of their arms, and the hands – brilliantly capture that sense of unbridled joy and excitement?

Umm Malik’s parents emigrated from Sarajevo in 1996, after the end of the Bosnian war, and settled in the northwest suburbs of Melbourne. She attended Islamic school, and wore the hijab from the age of 11 until she switched to the one-piece khimar – the garment she’s wearing here – several years ago. “It’s my choice to wear it,” she says. It’s not stuffy or hot, she insists, even on her regular long bushwalks in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, where she lives with her husband. “I’ve always loved being in nature,” she says.

Umm Malik did a Masters in Teaching at Deakin, and now works at a public school in Mount Druitt, western ­Sydney. Many of the kids come from troubled backgrounds, she says, and it can be a challenge to engage them in class. But it’s a challenge she’s up for. “I love building relationships with the students, and having conversations with them about how they see the world. I’ve had a few students tell me I’m their favourite teacher, because I don’t yell at them!”

She got married a couple of years ago, to Abu Malik, a dentistry student. “Our intention is to have a few kids – as many as God blesses us with,” she says. And she’ll make sure they grow up with a love of the ocean, too. “Being in the water makes me feel so happy,” she says. “It’s about ­connecting with nature. It’s about joy.”