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IQALUIT - A human rights activist in Iqaluit is offended by the treatment she receives when she wears clothing from the country of her birth, India, especially in the wake of terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month.

Charlene Sailani Sharma Villanuver feels singled out when she wears her clothes from India in public. - Photo courtesy - Charlene Sailani Sharma Villanuver

Charlene Sailani Sharma Villanuver has been in Iqaluit for two and a half years and runs a daycare in the city. She wants people to have a greater understanding of cultures from outside Canada.

“If I walk around in Iqaluit in an Indian outfit, I'm often asked if I'm a Muslim. I respond, 'Does that make a difference?'”

In November, Mumbai, India, was the site of dozens of co-ordinated terrorist attacks suspected to be carried out by a group with links to Pakistan, a Muslim country which has had religious and political conflicts with India for decades. More than a hundred Indians and foreigners died over the course of a week.

“What people do not understand is that one or two terrorists have caused Islam a dirty name,” she said.

Although Villanuver was born in India and speaks more than a dozen South Asian and other languages and dialects, her family lineage is mostly

Portuguese through the region's long history of European colonization.

Villanuver has travelled through many countries and said she is dismayed by the general disinterest in international issues she perceives in people around her.

“The sentiment for human rights is not there. Nobody wants to talk about it,” she said.

Villanuver is not a Muslim but she objects to the negative stereotypes she hears about them.

“They say they are dirty, they are breeders, they mistreat women ... They ask why women have to cover their head. That's not even part of Islam.” There is debate among some scholars who argue the hijab -- the head-scarf often warn by Muslim women -- is not a requirement of the Quran, the holy text of Islam, and that the hijab comes out of Arab culture from before the religion began.

Villanuver first moved to Canada when she was seven years old, but her voice still bears the lilt of an Indian accent. She said being treated as an outsider in her adopted country is hurtful.

“Me being a proud citizen of Canada and singing the national anthem, I came to Iqaluit and found out I'm an immigrant,” she said.