Shattering Identity Bias: Mona Shindy's Journey from Migrant Child to Navy Captain and Beyond

In the early seventies, a tiny three-year-old girl stood watching suitcases gliding by on the baggage carousel while hundreds of strangers bustled and jostled, all in a hurry. She’d just landed after a 22-hour flight from Cairo, through Changi and on to Sydney, with her two brothers and her mother. “Aida!” a familiar voice called her mother’s name. Then, “Monameeno!” her father cried and Mona was ‘home’.

Captain Mona Shindy’s story is one of love, faith, courage, tenacity and, at times, of e...