It was a pleasure visiting Withington Girls’ School in Manchester for our season of twinning event. Over 100 Muslim and Jewish girls with their teachers and sixth form prefects attended a session led by myself and Jonny Wineberg. This was one of the five schools who benefited from the celebratory #SpreadHummusNotHate initiative to promote messages of peace, community cohesion, tolerance and understanding between different faith communities.
The visit was also special because three of my nieces Sarah, Zarri and Humaira attend this school and they too joined in the fun.
Held in the sports hall Jonny Wineberg Vice-President of Manchester Jewish Representative Council & Co-Chair of We Stand Together spoke about the wonderful work of the Muslim Jewish Forum and Faith Network 4 Manchester. I talked about my positive experiences through my interfaith work with different faith communities including with the Jewish community and how it has totally ‘enriched’ my life.
I also talked about how I took the same messages of peace and tolerance to other countries, Malaysia, Philippines, Israel and Pakistan in recent weeks and about the twinning initiative. Jonny and I had a great time. Then began the celebration of the ‘Twinning’ project. As in the other schools visited we left the girls with pledges to ‘twin’ with another girl from another faith. Also to talk about this twinning initiative at home. And to actively challenge Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism and even with their families. Lastly the girls were urged to spend more time together in school and if possible outside learning about each other’s world’s i.e. customs, cultures, rituals etc.
Withington Girls School praised this ‘creative’ initiative in their tweet:
“Thanks very much to all involved in this incredibly creative way to promote peace & understanding #SpreadHummusNotHate.”
As they got into the spirit of twinning Muslims and Jewish girls enthusiastically held banners together in the sports Hall for our group photo. I called out my niece Zarri to ensure she was part of the big group photograph.
In the photo with the two teachers standing next to Jonny is my lovely niece Sarah with her friends. This is what she had to say about the event:
“The ‘spread hummus not hate’ session was a perfect way to further strengthen the importance of our school’s cosmopolitan environment which celebrates diversity. And we enjoyed the creative way of sealing our harmony with a greatly appreciated snack- spreading hummus!”
There was a lovely and lively atmosphere as the girls enjoyed eating Hummus and Pitta bread. Jonny and I were delighted how they really got into the spirit with some of them holding hummus tubs with pitta bread.
Most memorable and happy morning spent at the school. I left three copies of my novels ‘The Holy Woman’, ‘Typhoon’ and ‘Revolt’ as a gift for the literature department and the school library.
Mrs Morton the Spanish teacher who joined us for the event had this to say:
“I did not know what to expect? This was terrific! What a lovely idea and thing to do!”
We wish to thank Mrs Morton, Mr McKenna, the teachers who hosted us, the four sixth form girls who introduced us and Hannah Salomon from UJIA who has helped to arrange this event with the school.