Navigating body image, career choices and finding their place in the world is a tough journey for teenage girls, but for young Australian Muslims it has recently become a lot tougher.
Amirah Amin, a project co-ordinator with the Lebanese Muslim Association (LMA), believes the "ban the burqa" campaign has had "lasting repercussions" for Muslim women who have now inadvertently found themselves at the centre of a national debate around their clothing choices.
"It's not fair that we have to constantly keep justifying and explaining things that people have not put any effort in trying to understand," she said.
Ms Amin, 27, a trained social worker, is now mentoring a handful of young women who meet in the cafe of Bankstown library each Wednesday.
Ms Amin said she felt compelled to start the group, called "SisterHOOD", after recognising that young women in Sydney's western suburbs needed a non-judgmental environment where they could meet other girls in similar situations.
One participant, 18 year-old Narjis Saleh, said had felt scared to go outdoors because her hijab had become a public invitation for scrutiny, judgment and abuse.
Over the past few weeks she has been spat on, called a terrorist and hissed at to take off her hijab.
"I have a personality, I have an identity, why can't you look past my beliefs and just talk to me?" Ms Saleh said. "I just didn't want to be out in public."
"I was so scared."
She said fear has prompted many young women to stop wearing their hijabs.
For Muslim teenagers, who may already have been grappling with the anxieties and insecurities that typically plague the teenage years, the situation is especially damaging, Ms Amin said. "It's an extra added pressure in your formation of self and your identity," she said. "It's just getting harder and harder to figure things out."
But when in the group, which discusses a spectrum of issues universal to all teenage girls – from body image and eating disorders to coping with parental expectations – they have a feeling of community, with themes of identity and self-expression featuring prominently.
"I like the togetherness and the feeling of community – it's as if we belong to the one place," Ms Saleh said.
"I think it's really important that young women are confident and comfortable in the hijab because now more than ever it's a very difficult time."
While the group welcomes young women of all faiths and cultures, the recent spate of attacks against Muslim women have made the need to for an "open, friendly and welcome space" more pertinent than ever, Ms Amin said.
"We needed to do something, these young girls have no role models, and they don't have a healthy body image or relationships with themselves."
"Then all this started, and it just added an extra layer to it."
