Race hate surge targets Muslim women

In some areas of London the rise in attacks and abuse towards Muslims has risen by 260%. Overall the figures across the capital have seen an increase in Islamaphobic offences increase from 478 to 816, a rise of 70% in the last year. Almost two thirds of the victims were women who were wearing either a headscarf or hijab.

One victim told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 that the abuse and hatred was so bad in her area of South London that she was forced to move home:

I’m a white women who has converted to Islam, but it soon became clear that I was not welcome in my neighbourhood after receiving, virtually daily abuse and threats of violence."

In East London, two Muslim women were punched and kicked to the ground for wearing the Niqab , which hides the female body other than the eyes.

Fiyaz Mughal, from Tell Mama, an organisation that monitors Islamophobic incidents, said:

We realised quite early on that women who wear Niqab, the face veil, suffered more aggressive incidents – there was something about the face veil that in a way brought out the worst in the perpetrator.”

In any other circumstances in our society this level of violence and abuse towards women would be seen as a deeply troubling, demanding urgent attention, but the apathy that fails to confront this violence almost becomes tantamount to telling Muslim female victims; ‘you’ve brought this on yourselves’.

Both the Met Police and society as a whole must adopt a zero tolerance attitude to this increased Islamaphobia.

If we don’t, we’ll be lamenting someone’s death, arguing, ‘if only we’d have spoken out and demanded more action before this tragedy.

Simon Woolley