A well-known Muslim digital content creator from Austria, on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, claimed she was ‘spat at’ and had her ‘hijab pulled off’ on a bus in Vienna.
Baraa Bolat said she was physically harmed and attacked for wearing her hijab. She shared the whole incident on the social media platform TikTok.
“This was truly upsetting for me, I did not really know how to react for it was the first time I found myself in such situation,” Baraa Bolat said.
Bolat added: “A woman approached, and told me to go back to Turkey with prejudice as I was wearing hijab, even though I am not from Turkey.”
She said she ignored the attack and moved toward the front of the bus. But the attacker continued shouting at her with other racist and Islamophobic insults.
“I ignored her until she spat on me, which, during the epidemic, who knows, maybe she was carrying the disease. I thereupon got off, she followed me and attacked my hijab, pulling it very hard. The pulling caused needle attached to my hijab under my chin to wound me. I yelled at her but she did not stop until I took out my mobile phone and started taking pictures (of her), she then crossed to other side of street,” she said.
“I thought I had to take a stance against this incident, and everyone should learn about it. Regardless of wearing hijab or not, skin colour or ethnicity, nobody should go through an incident of this sort, and this should not be ignored in any way.
“I am not the first person attacked, spat on by this person; many women wearing hijab were unfortunately been subjected to similar attacks by the same individual. So, she has to pay the price. If she has been psychologically disturbed, then she should be hospitalised or another solution must be found. It is unacceptable that the person is somehow outside and harms other people,” she added.
