Registry Theatre investigates after Muslim comedian faces Islamophobic heckling

A Kitchener venue is investigating after a Toronto comedian endured Islamophobicheckling during her performance Wednesday night.

Three timesduring Nour Hadidi's45-minuteset at Kitchener's Registry Theatrethe same man piped up from the audience.

"The first time he heckled me, it was the beginning of the set and I just laughed it off. He said, 'I have a joke about Muslims if you want to hear it,'" Hadidi told CBCKitchener-Waterloo.

For the first time ever, I cried on stage.- Nour Hadidi

Thenin the last fiveminutes, she saidhe yelled from the crowd that he "didn't like Muslims."

"Comics want to end on a big laugh. I'm getting ready for my big closer, and all that material is about me being Muslim. And he just, I guess, couldn't handle it, and he started shouting at me."

The incident was so overwhelming she had to stoptheset and address the man.

"I think a lot of comicsexperience heckling and I think a lot of Muslims experience hate, but when the two happen in person, that's a rare occurrenceand something that I was not expecting," said Hadidi.

Over the seven years she's been doing comedy, Hadidi said she'sdevelopedskills to handle hecklingon stage and hateful messages online but the two never collided before until Wednesday night.

"That's why for the first time ever, I cried on stage and it was such a scary moment," she said.

Once it became evident the man had upset Hadidi, he left the theatre.

Sam Varteniuk, executive director of the Registry Theatre,said The Registry's anti-harassment policy says that an individual is to be asked to leave in such situations.

"I know our front of house staff were preparingto intervene, but before that was necessary, the individual left," Varteniuktold CBCKitchener-Waterloo.

"The Registry needs to be a safe place, a welcoming place, where people can share stories and thoughts. It's a place of coming together, it's a place of understanding." Varteniuk said."And we've really struggled with that."

He addedthe theatre "needs to be a place for everybody, but obviously we have to attach a caveat to that: it can't be a place forpeople who make it an unwelcoming place for other people."

Varteniuksaidthe man had been invited by a volunteer "as part of a program to make the theatre and what happens here more accessible," and that he is trying toget in touch withthe man involved.

Varteniuk said The Registry is also in the midst ofpreparing more training for staff and volunteers.

A feeling of being 'unwelcome'

Sarah Shafiq, with the Coalition ofMuslim Women of KW andco-ordinator of the Islamophobia Project, said experiences like Hadidi's can make aperson feel like they are not welcome.

"That one experience really shakes you up," she said.

"Particularly as a woman, you have a barrier genderly and culturallyon a societallevel. Then being an immigrant, a visible minority, then a Muslim and if you are a black Muslim, that's another compounding factor."

Hadidisaid she knows most communities are not Islamophobic but she encourages people to stand up if they witness this kind of situation.

"It's so much more powerful when it comes from someone who looks and sounds like them ... versus me having to battle through tears on stage to explain to this man that Muslims are just like everyone else," she said.

"You don't sound Arab" | Nour Hadidi

7 years ago

Duration 0:27

Nour Hadidi gets a "compliment" at a job interview.