A Muslim woman in the UK has had her hijab pulled down on a busy street in what seems to be a racially-motivated assault, police officials say.
The woman, who was not injured but shocked, was walking in High Road, north London, with another woman in the evening of a Wednesday, September 28, when the attack happened, Scotland Yard said Sunday.
As the two women were crossing the road by the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London, two men accosted them from behind and then one of them pulled down the woman’s hijab.
"There was a shocking attack in broad daylight in the middle of a busy street,” Detective Constable Ben Cousin of Haringey Community Safety Unit said. "Racially and religiously-motivated crimes will not be tolerated.”
Police have not arrested anyone in connection with the incident, but said anybody with any information about the suspects should contact the department.
“I would appeal to anyone who witnessed this attack to contact police," Cousin said.
Since June 23 when Britons opted for an exit from the European Union, there has been an upsurge in the hate crime reported across the country.
Since then, UK police have arrested over 400 people suspected of committing hate crimes, a figure which is double the number of offenses before the Leave vote.
On October 4, the Strasbourg-based council, a human rights and democracy watchdog body separate from the EU, released a report, expressing its concern over what it called a rise in "anti-foreigner sentiment."
In the report, the Council's European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) condemned "considerable intolerant political discourse in the UK, particularly focusing on immigration."
The report also provided evidence that anti-Muslim hate speech targeting women has rocketed online, through social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
In addition, a report published by The Telegraph on August 12 showed that British women wearing hijab were facing work discrimination as employers preferred hiring non-veil-wearing employees.
The report UK House of Commons report found that employers assumed that Hijab-wearing Muslims are “submissive and weak”.
