Focus on the Incidents related to Hijab.

 

Incidents Related to Hijab

In Australia: Christian college in Brisbane rejects student teachers who wore hijab – The principal of a Christian College come under fire for transferring two student teachers after they turned up for work dressed in traditional Muslim 131 headwear. The two women, in their final year of a teaching degree, had started a work placement at Redlands College in 2014. In a newsletter addressed to the school’s parents on 20 May, principal Mark Bensley outlined his reasons for dismissing the pair, explaining he had acted out of a duty of care, as he had “…a duty of care to ensure that those teaching at the College are actively supporting the Christian principles, practices and beliefs of the College…I see the wearing of the hijab as openly acting in a manner that is contrary to or inconsistent with these principles, practices and beliefs.” 

In France: Veiled Muslim woman attacked in southern France— The woman was leaving a metro station in the centre of the city when she was approached by a man who called her a terrorist, police said. The man, who was in his 20s, then made a reference to the fact that she was wearing a hijab - a head covering worn by some Muslim women. He then punched her in the neck and sliced her chest with what is thought to have been a box cutter, before fleeing the scene. The woman escaped serious injury and was prescribed two days off work. Police said that other Islamophobic attacks had surfaced in the area after Islamic extremists killed 129 people in Paris on Friday 13 November, but did not go into detail. 

UK: Mother-of-four wearing veil suffers vile abuse in Tesco while shopping with children— A mother-of-four had spoken of the fear she felt after being abused in a supermarket for wearing a veil. Rahela Chowdhury, 32, were in a Tesco store with her children when she said she was approached by a man. She said: “He started abusing me, asking me why I was wearing the full veil. “It was the first time anyone had shouted at me in this way. I was frozen and I didn’t know what to do.” Mrs Chowdhury said she feared more for her children, two aged 12, one aged four and the other aged 11. She added: “My youngest started crying uncontrollably.” The incident happened and only ended when a member of staff intervened, Mrs. Chowdhury said. Security officers then removed the offender. Her husband Khalil said: “She has been out rarely since and is really fearful that it could happen again. It is very upsetting for her for someone to start shouting ‘Why can’t I see your face?’ ….This was a very distressing incident for her and now I make sure I go out with her.”

In France: Woman wearing a veil punched and slashed — Muslim woman was wounded with a box cutter in a race hate attack following the Paris terrorist atrocities, France's interior minister has said. Bernard Cazeneuve condemned the assault and another attack on a Jewish teacher as cowardly and urged French citizens to remember the values of the Republic. The assaults came on the day French police raided an apartment block in a Paris suburb in the hunt for Islamic State (IS) extremists suspected of carrying out Friday's massacre in the capital, killing 129 people. The young woman, who was wearing a veil, was punched and slashed as she left a metro station in Marseille, in the south of France, by a person who made comments about her religious dress. She was taken to a nearby hospital. A second racially-motivated assault took place on the same day in the port city's 13th district when a teacher from a Jewish religious school was stabbed by a group who shouted anti-Semitic slurs and comments "glorifying terrorism". French media reported the gang of three men claimed to support IS and the man was stabbed in the leg.

In United Kingdom: Pregnant Muslim woman branded Terrorist on London bus while passengers looked on — A pregnant Muslim woman was racially abused by a drunk man who branded her Terrorist in a 15 minute tirade on a London bus while passengers looked on without intervening, it had been claimed. The Turkish victim faced a barrage of abuse as she travelled on a 259 bus along Blackstock Road, Finsbury Park. It was only when her abuser threatened to punch her that a man stepped in to protect her, witnesses said. The bus driver, who remained in his cabin, stopped the bus and told passengers to get off once he was alerted to the abuse. He called police who arrived on the scene moments later. Charity worker Betta Elisa watched the events unfold as she travelled to work. The 40-year-old Sicilian, who involved in Tottenham, said she was surprised that no one stepped in to help the woman for at least 15 minutes, adding that one man only moved to restrain the abuser when he threatened to punch her. She said she was one of two women who stayed with the victim while her sister was called to collect her. She told the Standard: "What surprised me even more is that no one went to comfort the victim”. She was stroking her belly because she was six months pregnant.

In Canada: Muslim convert attacked while wearing Niqab in Toronto — Safira Merriman, 30, said in a Facebook post describing an incident that she was trying to enter Shoppers Drug Mart at Toronto’s Fairview Mall when a man carrying a liquor-store bag blocked her path and then drove his elbow hard into her shoulder, in front of her two daughters, ages nine and four. The identity issue played out in Canadian election debates and in courtrooms was now being felt in the streets, shopping malls and on social media, as disparaging remarks and even outright assaults drew attention to a charged political environment.

In  United Kingdom: Woman launches racist rant on Moroccan women for their veil — A video of a black woman verbally attacking Muslim women with racist insults onboard a London bus had gone viral. According to UK’s Daily Mail, on 13 October, a five-minute video showed a woman shouting racist offenses at Muslim women wearing a veil on the 206 bus in 133 Willesden. The woman who was traveling with an infant in a stroller, began screaming to the surprise of the other passengers and called the Muslims “sandbags” and “Isis b****es” among other insults. The attacker pointed her finger at the Muslim women’s faces shouting: “Talk your f***ing language. Keep laughing. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. With your bombs hiding underneath your clothes.” She added: “I don’t f***ing like you people because you’re f***ing rude. You come to England and you have no f***ing manners. Go back to your f***ing country where they are bombing every day, don’t come here where we are free,” The Muslim women who were later found to be of Moroccan origin, stayed quiet and received the offensive remarks without fighting back.

In United States: Protesters decry Islam outside Phoenix mosque: 'They want to take over'— Demonstrators squared off outside a Phoenix mosque amid a heavy police presence on 10 October, during the highest-profile of a series of anti-Islam rallies planned to be staged nationwide. In Maryland, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Oklahoma City, there was reported no one had shown up by 4pm, the time the protest organizers had scheduled. Meanwhile, a handful of protesters were outside the University of Central Oklahoma, where a conference about the life of the Prophet Mohammad and Islam was taking place. The Phoenix protest attracted more than 120 demonstrators and more than 30 law enforcement officials. 

In United Kingdom: Muslim woman has veil ripped off in Islamophobic attack in London — A Muslim student had her face veil ripped off in a racist attack outside a London university. The woman had joined members of an Islamic Society running a stall outside the Strand campus of King's College London (KCL) as part of Discover Islam awareness week on 4 March. The group, who were handing out literature, became involved in a 30-minute altercation when two men who approached the stall behaving in a threatening and abusive manner towards female Muslim students. The incident allegedly then resulted in one woman's niqab being violently pulled from her face. Hareem Ghani, a student and friend of the woman allegedly attacked, said: "Two white men approached sisters on the stalls outside Strand and began to verbally assault them. This eventually escalated to physical threats of violence, and a fellow sister had her niqab (fullface veil) pulled off by one of the men." The incident comes as the latest crime stats showed a rise in the number of Islamophobic crimes in London.

In United Kingdom: Muslim woman wearing face veil racially abused and called 'Batman' in shop — On 2 April 2016 Ahlam Saed who had gone into a corner shop in Ealing Common to buy some sweets was mocked by a man for her outfit in front of his two children. Saed who is 25 years old, filmed the moment she was shouted and sworn at simply because she wore a niqab. The video showed the man repeatedly asking Saed "Why do you wear that?", referring to her veil. "My kids can't even see your face, who are you? Are you a man or woman?" the man says, adding "This is a Christian country. Christian, western world." Ahlam Saed said she filmed the abuse because she wanted to show the kinds of treatment some Muslims were subjected to in the UK. "My parents don't want me to wear it because they fear for my safety. But why should I take it off because of other people's opinions? It's my choice," Saed said, adding that she faced more abuse in recent months than ever before, it got worse since the Brussels and Paris attacks