In early October 2015, Dr Syeda Jaffri contacted Tell MAMA and made us aware of an assault on her which left us exasperated as to the level of confidence that the perpetrator had, in order to attack a visible Muslim female.
On the 29th of September 2015, in the late evening, Dr Jaffri was with about 25 other Muslim women who were going to support the family member of someone who had died and they were going to convey their condolences., when they were accosted by Aiden Fletcher, who was about to commit an assault.
Dr Jaffri and other women had arrived earlier by car and were looking for the address of the family who had suffered the bereavement and were targeted by Mr Fletcher who aggressively approached them and started to point his finger and make aggressive gestures. At one point, the victim was told to ‘move out of the way‘ even though the perpetrator had blocked her way. What ensued was an assault as the perpetrator head butted Dr Jaffri leading to her having to seek medical attention.
However, the Nottingham Post failed to mention the following fact that Jaffri has mentioned to Tell MAMA. That after the attack, the perpetrator went up and rounded up between 20-25 males who came back to the scene to further intimidate the Muslim women who were simply trying to provide their condolences to the bereaved family.
The white males continued to verbally assault the group of women who then called the police given the nature of the intimidation and the assault on Dr Jaffri.
Tell MAMA were alerted to the case in early October 2015 and worked on ensuring that detailed were recorded and passed to law enforcement. We would like to commend the courage of Dr Jaffri for contacting us, standing up for her rights and for sending a clear message – anti-Muslim hatred is unacceptable and needs to be tackled through the courts where possible.