one

Before I get started on the music of the week, let my just rant about my little experience. (which happened a few times already.) Since you don't know me, let me just tell you that I am a Malay Muslim girl residing in Singapore. Wearing a hijab since I was 14, I'm pretty much your basic Malay Muslim Singaporean girl. 
Recently graduated from College, wanted to get a full time job. Which, as you guess, is huge obstacle to overcome. Its difficult enough to go into this man-eat-man world with just a Diploma, but being a minority AND being a Muslim hijabi? Man, thats even tougher. Let me tell you the reasons why. 

1. A lot, and I mean  A LOT of jobs in Singapore requires the person applying for the job to be able to speak and understand Mandarin. If you don't, well you're not welcomed to apply for this position. 

2. When you're not accepted for a certain position because you wear the hijab. Some examples would be those in the Service Industry. Whereby a person must wear formal blouse and a skirt at knee length for decency and formality but a hijab is not allowed. 

3. I study Logistics and Operations Management and men are preferred over women in the warehouse. (I understand the 'males a stronger' logic) but I am more than capable to do just as well as the males does. 

4. Discriminated for being a Malay and deemed 'lazy.' Funny story - I was once rejected a position as a Leader in a CCA and they rejected me because according to them 'the previous Malay Leader didn't turn up for the meetings and was a bad a leader' even though I met all their other criteria. So because of one bad kettle (maybe she had some issues at home idk), people just automatically assume Malays are lazy. 

Anyways, there are other factors that I find a little unfair in this little red dot in Asia. The government specifies that English is our main language but why is that on Job ads, I only ever read 'Must be able to converse in Mandarin' but NEVER ever "Must be able to converse in Malay or Tamil." Let me know whether you've ever seen an ad like so. I was rejected 2 to 3 jobs just because I was only able to speak in English and Malay and its so unfair and difficult to find a job. 
Even so, why are you rejected a potentially good worker just because he or she is not able to understand or talk in a certain language? What if they had the skills and talents to boost the sales of your company, but your arrogant 'Chinese speaking only' policy ruined it all? 

Also, does my hijab suppress my skills and potential? Why does it bother you that I cover my body and practice decency? As long as I'm presentable and formal, I should be able to work, right? I'm confident in my skills that I'd be willing to throw myself at the manager if he doesn't hire me, haha. 

Anyway, yeah. Those are a few things that I'm dealing with right now and its shitty. Not being able to find a job because you're a minority, really hurts you mentally. Rejected over and over again, because "u DoNt uNdErStAnD ChInEse, " I'm so tight on cash this week and its literally killing me. I just hope one day it will all be over. 


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