When Mariam Veiszadeh took the wrong, slower bus route to work one morning in February, she innocently tweeted how she turned her bad start to the day into a positive: time to gaze out of the bus window and reflect.
A tweet in return took her back: "Yes, dreaming that one day all of this will belong to Islam I would imagine. You will fail!"
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Daily Life Women of the Year 2016
Who were the women that inspired, lead and achieved great things in 2016?
Veiszadeh, the Daily Life 2016 Woman of the Year, says it summed up what being Muslim in Australia has come to mean today.
"I could not tweet about a journey to work without someone turning it around … To have this collective blame applied to 300,000-plus Australian Muslims on a regular basis is really exhausting," the 32-year-old Sydneysider says of the Islamophobia that has swept so forcefully into political narratives in 2016.
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"A generation of Australians are growing up having known no other home, having known no other country, and yet are made to feel like absolute strangers in their own home. I don't want to feel like my level of Australian-ness is negotiable … and the subject of political fear mongering."
The advocate, lawyer and diversity and inclusion practitioner was nominated by the public and judged overall winner of Daily Life's annual award to recognise women who have inspired and actively worked for positive change, often in the face of resistance.
The Kabul-born refugee, who was brought to tears when she learnt of her win, stood out to the panel of judges, including incumbent Daily Life Woman of the Year, Gillian Triggs, for her courage, tenacity and perseverance without the protection and resources afforded by public office.
Stinging as that early morning tweet was, it is a mere drop in the ocean of online abuse the anti-Islamophobia champion faces everyday in her fight for "human rights bare minimums", such as respect and "feeling like you are not a stranger in your own home".
She was mercilessly trolled after weighing in to September's debate around a since discredited survey that found 49 per cent of Australians would support a ban on Muslim immigration. Death threats and rape threats followed.
In July, she established Fact Check One Nation in an attempt to influence power imbalances by examining Senator Pauline Hanson's rhetoric.
"It's easy for vocal minority groups to shout each other down, but the reality is that they are fringe elements and we have to constantly remind ourselves of that," she says of the likes of Hanson.
But despite the vitriol, Veiszadeh says that the year, for her, has come to mean remaining resilient, vulnerable and even humorous in the face of hate and adversity.
"It is about injecting humanity into conversations," she says of her consistent efforts to raise the profile of Muslim Australians in the media and public discourse.
"Personal interaction with people is a really important dimension to tackling divisive politics. It's easy to demonise a group of people that you don't know anything about, but it's a lot harder to demonise an individual who you have gotten to know."
One young man, whose parents are One Nation supporters, wrote to say his mind had been changed and apologised for the hatred directed her way. A woman she met confessed, in whispers, that, driven by fear, she kept her Islamic faith secret. The significance of both of their stories are larger than they might ever know.
When she started to lose hope over the last 12 months, even the smallest positive impact, Veiszadeh says, made her efforts worth the struggle.
"The daughter that my mother raised is not one who gives up easily. My mother raised me to be tenacious like her and to stand up for those who are less privileged," she says. "Speaking out, even if you think no-one's listening, can make a difference."
Do you have a question for our Daily Life 2016 Woman of the Year? We'll be chatting live with Mariam Veiszadeh on Daily Life's Facebook at 12:30pm AEDT on December 6.Â