DARE 1

In the winter 2019 I had a woman committ a hate crime against me because I’m a black hijab wearing Muslim young woman spouting hate speech and islamophobic language and nearly physically assault me by approaching me aggressively.

I worked at a library in downtown Guelph. Part of the job was retrieving comic books from the Dragon Comics store in the Quebec Street Mall.

I am visibly Muslim as I wear the hijab. I was carrying a box filled with comics back to the library and it was getting dark. There was a bunch of men and women standing near a church in that street and they began trying to call me over and when I refused nicely they began calling me a “towel-head” and a “terrorist”.

The day after Donald Trump got elected, a white middle-aged man in a blue pickup truck that was driving behind me switched lanes, pulled up beside me, motioned for me to roll down my window, and when I did yelled 'go home, bitch!'. We were stopped at a light at that point. When the light turned green, he sped forward, cut me off in my lane, and drove off. I am a South Asian hijabi woman.

I have faced Islamophobia my whole entire life but today I'll be sharing my first encounter when I was only 5years old. I remember this so vividly and it still hurts me. I was a kindergarten student in this predominantly white school in Quebec. I always use to get looks from students, teachers and staff but it was nothing too serious.

I’d like to say I was born Muslim, but babies don’t have religion. All they know is that they are at the centre of the universe at all times. I suppose I became a Muslim the day my mom told 3-year-old-me that someday “we are all going to Allah’s house” and to this day, I still believe it. I wear a hijab, I order coke at pubs when I’m out with non-Muslim friends or colleagues…

You can do it, InshAllah!” I repeated this affirmation whenever I wanted to achieve a goal. If I worked hard and was optimistic, everything would work out. I always tried so hard to fit in because I never felt like I belonged. Being bullied, harassed, and ridiculed for being Muslim was difficult enough, but I thought I just needed to be patient and keep going.

Before 911

Growing up in Canada, any lived experience of hate, violence, racism and Islamophobia is commonplace. I faced all this internally within the Muslim community and externally in many forms. Name-calling, bullying, exploitation harassment were common experiences in my life. I was isolated and bullied with name-calling, “You Ugly Ref! fresh off the boat! Did you arrive in Canada on a Camel? Where is your Camel? Go back to your desert or to wherever you came from, we hate you, get out of here.”