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Muslim women speak out about Islamophobic attacks

Muslim women speak out about Islamophobic attacks

Categories: Latest News

Tuesday April 26 2016

The Asian Image newspaper relates a number of incidents of Islamophobia with Muslim women recounting their experiences at home, in the workplace and on public transport.

The paper features interviews with a Muslim doctor, a mum with young children, a PhD student and an A level student all of whom wear a form of Islamic dress; a headscarf or face veil (niqab).

One of the victims, a Muslim mother with young children recounts the abuse she suffered while out and about. She states that she reported the incidents to the police only when the abuse “followed her home”. She recounted being called “Bin Laden’s wife” and “traitor” in the streets and the escalation of abuse with eggs smashed through her letterbox and a group of boys throwing a can of fizzy drink over her and calling her a “lazy immigrant.”

The victim said: “I can’t live with my children in fear like this. Perhaps the gang see me as an easier target because I have young children and I don’t have a husband. I have since moved [home].”

A Muslim doctor who wears hijab talked about suffering abuse while tending to patients saying that one patient “spat at her” during a consultation while another told her “to go back to my own country as I’m taking up a white person’s job.”

“I don’t think there’s any point telling people like that that I was born in England,” she said.

A PhD student who wears the niqab and spends late nights in the lab spoke about incidents occurring on public transport when travelling late at night. The student related a number of incidents of abuse saying that people would avoid sitting next to her on the train or take “subtle pictures” to “post on social media”. She said she had been called “a filthy Arab by a group of men who then emptied their beer cans on my hijab. When the train is moving, there is no escape until the next stop.”

On another occasion a man “made a mock gun sign with his hand as he stared at me.”

“In shopping centres I have had security men following me around. It’s easier just to leave to be honest,” she added.

An A level student recounted abuse in the days following the attacks in Brussels saying that a man sitting next to her on the train “started a very loud conversation with his friend talking about ‘f**king Muslims blowing up another bomb’ and how ‘Islam is a violent religion’ and that ‘all Muslims secretly condone the terrorist attacks.”

“No-one else said anything on the underground. People don’t intervene really, do they?”

The cases related in the news article reinforce the fears expressed by Muslim women about being targeted for anti-Muslim hate crime because of their appearance.

The news article does not mention whether all of the women suffering Islamophobic abuse reported the incidents to the police or to their employers or institution, be it an NHS Trust or university. The cases do illustrate the many situations in which Muslim women are singled out for abuse, in the workplace or while out in public, and further reinforces the need to ensure that all incidents are reported to the police for proper documentation and investigation.

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