A Muslim woman, who wears a niqab, was threatened with being ‘lynched’ as she passed a man in a quiet London street.
The abuse began when the man disparaged her appearance, shouting “does your breath stink that much that you have to cover it?” as she passed him.
Ignoring the personal abuse, he continued in a more threatening tone, again, shouting: “I fought in the war for this country, go back or I’ll lynch you” multiple times.
When she turned to photograph the man he had raised his middle finger at her.
She shared the photograph with Tell MAMA after contacting our service for support, and, after giving her consent, agreed to let us contact the police on her behalf.
The incident occurred on September 13 at around 15:42 GMT.
Tell MAMA continues to document the often disproportionate abuse, discrimination, and threats directed at Muslim women who wear the niqab. We saw a large uptake in reports following Boris Johnson’s comments about the niqab last month, with over 20 reports from Muslim women since Mr Johnson’s column appeared online, compared with five reports in the previous week.
In 2017, 62 per cent of Muslim women reporting to Tell MAMA were wearing Islamic clothing when anti-Muslim and Islamophobic incidents took place, and, of that figure, almost one in ten had worn a niqab.
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