A Muslim woman walking with her young sister to celebrate Eid near to a park described how a group of men in a passing car made several derogatory remarks and laughed about their traditional clothing.

One comment included, “how are people going to come out like this with their Eid clothes on?! They stink as well!”.

Speaking to Tell MAMA, she added that the comments had terrified her young sister.

The incident took place in the Reading area on May 24 at around 17:00 GMT.

To further protect their identities, we are declining to name the park in question.

She described the main perpetrator as an Indian male in his mid-to-late twenties, as the two other men, described as laughing at the remarks, she described as being of the same age and black.

In 2018, Tell MAMA recorded the details of 1,196 perpetrators, with 482 verified as male. The dataset for that year also revealed that the perpetrators were older than those they targeted. And, consistent with previous annual reports, of the known/disclosed victims, the majority were female (57 per cent, n=721)

In that same reporting year, Tell MAMA verified 400 (54 per cent) incidents of anti-Muslim and Islamophobic incidents categorised as abusive behaviour.

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