A new Australian study has found that most victims of racist abuse against Muslims in Australia were women who wore headscarves, and that the majority of perpetrators were men.

The study, led and supervised by Dr. Deria Ener of Charles Sturt University, surveyed nearly 250 incidents of religious and ethnic defamation and abuse, both online and offline, from January 2018 to December 2019.

The study relied on verified data from Islamophobia Records in Australia, a civil society-run service established in 2014, to analyze 138 incidents of physical assault and 109 cases of online assault, as reported by the Australian AAP platform, which published the most important It was mentioned in the study a few days ago.

Abusive behavior of veiled women in Australia reflects intolerance towards Muslims, according to a study by the AAP platform (Shutterstock)

Statistics showing the extent of the risk

“Women who are veiled, lonely, and women with children are at more risk as they are the easiest targets for cowardly perpetrators,” says Dr. Enir.

"Out of the 103 victims, 85 percent of them wore the hijab, 48 percent were alone, 15 percent were with children, and 12 percent were with other women," she added.

The researchers said that nearly two-thirds of physical assault incidents (63%) occurred in public places, and were perpetrated by men (74%).

The study stated that "the abusive behavior of veiled women also reflects intolerance towards Muslims, especially towards women who express their faith by wearing the veil."

The study - released on the third anniversary of the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand - analyzed how those bloody attacks inspired more white supremacists to engage in racist abuse online.

A white nationalist Australian gunman killed 51 Muslim worshipers in March 2019 in a Christchurch mosque, and in the two weeks following the attack, online hate speech towards Muslims in Australia rose by 65%.

Two-thirds of the incidents of physical assault on veiled women in Australia took place in public places, and 74% of them were committed by men (Reuters)

Most of the Internet attacks on Facebook

Most of the 109 cases of online abuse of Islam examined took place on Facebook (83), a popular platform among right-wing and neo-Nazi groups in the country.

The researchers, who attached video footage of online abuse against Muslims including death threats, said political parties and far-right leaders in Australia had a "key role in creating online hate agendas reproduced by managers and followers of far-right groups".

"The nature, origin and online impact of the Christchurch attacks demonstrate that treating online violence as less relevant and realistic is decidedly delusional and unhelpful," said Dr. Enire.

She called for a comprehensive approach to dealing with racial discrimination that takes into account the severity and strength of virtual hate networks.

The study concluded that Islamophobia is not only an Islamic problem, "but it is a threat to social cohesion in Australia as a whole, which requires comprehensive national participation if Australia is to live up to the level of its multicultural heritage with which it has been known throughout its modern history."

Veiled Indian women attend a class after the Karnataka Supreme Court upheld the ban on headscarves in educational institutions (European)

Racism against veiled women is rampant in India

This is in Australia, but in India, the matter is no less racist and worse, where racism against veiled women is blatantly practiced in society, especially at work, as many Indian companies refuse to employ veiled Muslim women on the pretext that they are "not good for work," according to what I mentioned. The Wire platform, in a recent report, recounted some of the stories of the suffering of veiled women in India, and among these stories is the story of Wafa.

Last year, Wafaa, the 30-year-old Muslim girl, gave an online interview for a job at a PR firm, and it went well, there were even hints that she could be called in for an in-person interview. The company headquarters, but when she finally revealed that she was wearing the hijab, silence prevailed first, then the question: “Will you be able to attend parties?”, and the interviewer did not wait for the answer to say decisively, “It will not look good for business,” meaning that she will not attend any party while she is wearing the hijab, then Wafa did not hear anything from them after that.

Wafa searched for work elsewhere, where she applied for a job as a "content writer" with a company that produces written content on Hinduism.

Her name did not prevent the company's HR staff from calling her for an interview, but after Wafaa said she was wearing a headscarf, the interviewer said he would return to her after speaking to his manager, and she never heard anything from him again.

Racism is practiced against veiled women in India in a blatant way in (European) society

Why do they judge me by my clothes?

Wafaa said, "This has happened many times, where my external appearance is judged more than what is inside my head... It feels bad because I am not judged on my qualifications, but on my clothes."

Wafa adds that Indian society “makes me feel different, as people of other faiths who wear visible religious symbols are not questioned. Sikh men, for example, wear turbans, as do some Sikh women, and Hindus wear tilak if they want to, but They are not required to remove their religious symbols before they come to the office."

Wearing the veil was Wafaa’s personal choice, and none of her family and relatives forced her to do so, and when she was in her third year of college, she was showing off her long silky hair in front of her companions, and her decision to wear it was based on comfort: the veil keeps the sun off her head, neck and shoulders in the Delhi summer Warm, ensures its warmth in winter.

"It was a personal choice," she said. "Some friends and acquaintances told me that I would look better without the hijab, but I have the right to wear what I like, not what others like."

There are many stories in India that resemble the story of loyalty in a society that contains more than 180 religions, yet Muslims have a special status in Indian society, which declares that it respects freedom, religions and the right to be different.