He’s Australia’s first ever Muslim test cricketer and in scenes to air on Sunday evening’s episode of 60 Minutes on Channel Nine, Usman Khawaja will talk about his relationship with a woman who couldn’t be any further from his own cultural background if she tried.
Khawaja is set to marry Rachel McLellan, an Australian-Catholic who had never met a Muslim before meeting her husband-to-be. The pair are set to discuss everything in the tell-all interview, from their unlikely relationship, racism on the cricket field and McLellan’s decision to convert to the Muslim religion to marry the man she loves.
While he resides in Australia now, Khawaja was born in Pakistan and admits to host Allison Langdon that his faith has always took a front seat to everything else in his life. It’s also a huge part of his family life.
You could imagine that falling in love with an Aussie girl with a Catholic background would have been quite the shock for the Khawaja family.
“She thought that when I first met her that I was going to like … tie my wife up in chains, put her in a dungeon or something,” Khawaja admits in a trailer for tonight’s episode.
McLellan adds that she was also ignorant about Khawaja’s culture at first, noting that she only paid attention to the negative messages of Islam that are often reported on the TV and in the news. She also admits that she’s known religion was a big part of Khawaja’s life, hence why she’s opting to ditch her Catholic background and convert to Islam. “I knew how important religion was to Ussy When I met him,” she says in a clip as she tries on a hijab, a veil worn by some Muslim women in the presence of men outside of their close family.
Despite the huge lifestyle change that comes with converting to Islam, McLellan is adamant that she wasn’t forced or pressured into anything. “Not at all,” she says. “Not any pressure from him, not any pressure from his family.”
The pair are also expected to debunk the myth that Muslim men are in full control of the household, with McLellan confirming she wears the boots in the relationship. Khawaja jokes that he’s still the man, with host Langdon pointing out that doesn’t mean he’s in charge.
The full interview will air on tonight’s episode of 60 Minutes on Channel Nine.