SINGAPORE – Her photo has been making its rounds on social media for the past two days, but the attention it garnered has made Ms Sakinah Tan, 23, “feel abit exposed and violated”.
An unexpected tender moment shared between Ms Tan and her grandmother warmed the hearts of Singaporeans, who initially thought the pair were strangers. Netizens subsequently held the image up as an emblem of Singapore’s multiracial society.
The pair were snapped by a photographer from Today, Mr Jason Quah, and the photo subsequently posted on the media outlet’s Instagram account on July 26.
In the photo, Ms Tan was shown sheltering the elderly Chinese lady with her hijab. The original caption read: “A lady shelters an elderly woman from the rain with her head scarf at West Coast Drive”.
It was later revealed that Ms Tan is actually the granddaughter of the elderly lady, Madam Annie Loh, 78.
The photo went viral on social media, with mostly positive reactions from netizens, but the attention has taken its toll.
Writing on her blog, Ms Tan says she has mixed feelings about the incident, which has been dubbed “hijabrella” online.
“I now know how animals on exhibition feel”, she wrote.
She noted how insensitive comments about the photo like “Is the uploader dumb? They don’t look the same”, has affected her, and “flushes my family’s beautiful history, of tolerance and patience, down the drain”.
“People feel like they have the right to decide whether or not she’s my grandmother or some random Chinese lady, just based on their yet-to-mature worldview,” wrote Ms Tan.
Besides being overwhelmed by posts shared to her Facebook account, some netizens have even questioned if the photo was a set-up and accused her of working for the government.
She sheds light on the real story behind the shot:
“On that fateful rainy day, I was sending my Nainai (grandmother in Mandarin) to the clinic and having breakfast with her instead of my mother because I wanted to lighten my mother’s burden of travelling on her injured leg, and I honestly just missed my Nainai. Mr Jason Quah was under the block with his professional lens and camera, seeking shelter from the freshly-subsiding rain, when he happened to catch eye of my Nainai and I alighting from the cab.”
In the same post, Ms Tan shared snippets into her family history, noting that Madam Loh is her grandmother from her dad’s side of the family, who “accepted my mother and my father’s love for the Islamic faith with open arms”.
Wrote Ms Tan: “My Nainai is the epitome of what every interracial/inter-religious family needs – and I’m extremely grateful/proud that she is my role model.”
Ms Tan also added that her mother tongue is in fact Chinese and she is Chinese by law.
Hoping to make use of the ‘temporary viral’ attention on her for some good, she goes on to detail issues faced by racially-mixed Muslims that are close to her heart, such as exo-communication by their loved ones; the stigma of being in interracial relationships as well as the loneliness the elderly face.
As a parting shot, Ms Tan added: “May we all learn to love, more than hate, amidst all the terror going on elsewhere in the world.”
candicec@sph.com.sg
