A white mum and a Black dad who had a baby with albinism have opened up about the shocking racist abuse their child has already experienced at just 15 months of age.
Marwa Houma, 33, said she had expected her daughter Julia-Marie to share skin tones with her and her Black civil partner, Malcolm John, 60, but she was born instead with blonde hair, blue eyes and pale skin.
The mum recounts the vicious discrimination her child has experienced at such a young age, particularly when she is with her doting father, who often has to deal with people refusing to believe that he is the baby's dad.
Despite doctors failing to spot Julia-Marie's rare condition when she was born, tests two months later revealed that she has albinism, a condition affecting one in every 17,000 people.
Albinism affects the production of melanin, which determines someone’s hair, eye and skin colour and makes those with the condition particularly susceptible to sunlight.
Marwa says that her daughter has suffered vile racist abuse throughout her short life, including being branded a "white monkey" in a disgusting outburst that led the mum to report a hate crime to the police.
The Croydon-based mum says she was thrilled when she fell pregnant with her first child in 2020. But when Julia-Marie was born in June last year, Marwa was surprised by her daughter's striking features that didn't match her parents' looks.
She said: "She was born completely white, like pale with blonde hair and blue eyes.
"I was expecting to have a mixed-race baby because her father is of black Caribbean heritage.
"He had just thought, 'this is our baby'. Maybe he was in denial, but he had her in his arms and loved her from day one."
Despite being a doting father to Julia-Marie, Malcom has faced racial discrimination alongside his daughter as people refuse to believe he is her dad.
Marwa explains: "Every time I take Julia outside, people don’t look at me because I’m fair-skinned, but when they look at Malcolm with Julia, it’s like 'what’s that man doing with that baby?'
"People would stare at him as though he kidnapped the baby, and I felt for him, but he couldn’t express it".
The couple are fearful that Julia-Marie will face even more racist abuse when she reaches school-age, and are desperate to protect their daughter from bullying.
"As a parent, I need to be brave and fight for my daughter’s future. Our fear is that Julia would get bullied about her glasses and condition," the mum says.
"People need to know you don’t need to be black to be racially abused.
"You can be white, have blonde hair and blues eyes, and still be abused for your skin colour".
Despite Julia-Marie's condition posing serious health risks, Marwa says doctors and nurses at the hospital where her daughter was born failed to recognise the condition, and she later slipped into post natal depression.
Her baby was only diagnosed with albinism by a GP two months later, when the doctor warned of serious health dangers Julia-Marie could face in the future.
The Croydon-based mum found out that her tot has "OCA1", meaning she could contract skin cancer if she's exposed to direct sun. Julia-Marie also needs to wear glasses to protect her vision.
Marwa adds: " She also can’t open her eyes outside because of the bright light, she has photophobia [a fear of the light]. This is where my battle started".
After becoming 'paranoid' that the strong sun rays could harm her daughter, the mum reveals that she's spent most of this year's seriously hot summer indoors.
Outside of the health concerns, Marwa also got to the stage where she stopped taking Julia-Marie out completely, as the racial abuse got so severe.
Recalling a distressful experience with her partner Malcom, the mum says: "We once had an incident at the hospital. She was six months old and crying, so I said, 'I’m going to take her to the car and feed her and you can pick up the prescription'.
"But the lady at the chemist wouldn’t take Malcolm seriously. She said, 'call the mother, so I can confirm her date of birth'. She wouldn’t believe this is the father.
"He was fuming, and he had to come all the way to the car park and say, 'could you come upstairs and confirm Julia’s date of birth'".
Another horrific incident saw her daughter being branded a "white monkey", a racist slur that led her to fear future reprisals.
Marwa admits: "I stopped taking Julia out completely. Enough of the intimidation!"
Despite the discrimination and health struggles Julia-Marie has faced at an early age, she has since gone on to have a successful baby modelling career, attracting fans from across the globe.
Marwa now wants more people to become more aware of the medical truths surrounding albinism - to crack down on the vile abuse that many people with the rare condition face every day.
She says: "Quite often these subjects are swept under the carpet and people don’t often talk about it. This is a lack of knowledge.
"People need to understand what albinism is and the origin of the disorder. It’s not contagious and it’s not a disability.
"In 2022, it’s sad to say, there’s still discrimination, and not only white people can be racist.
"There’s racism in every single race. We need to stand for our Julia".
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