LONDON: A Muslim mother in the UK was attacked by a stranger with a concrete slab “because she was wearing a hijab,” her husband told The Independent.
CCTV footage of the incident in Dewsbury on Wednesday shows a hooded man approaching the woman carrying a large slab of concrete he had found nearby.
After closing the distance, he throws the concrete at the women’s head. She was struck despite seeing her attacker approach at the last second.
The victim was waiting outside a takeaway shop ahead of a job interview, while her husband, 40-year-old Eid Karimi, was inside the shop buying food for his wife.
Karimi later chased down the attacker along with other pedestrians and handed the man over to police.
He said that his wife was targeted because she was wearing a hijab.
“I went inside (the shop) to get food and she chose to wait outside in the rain because she had an umbrella.
“Suddenly I saw people running around and this guy. He tried to run but I ran after him and grabbed him. He was shouting: ‘Don’t call the police, I won’t do it again.’
“We were holding him down for the police to arrive. He knew he was in trouble.
“She was wearing a hijab — that’s why she was chosen. There were 50-60 people there but she was the one attacked from behind.”
West Yorkshire Police said that the man was detained, but refused to comment on whether the case was being treated as a hate crime.
Karimi added that he “wants the police to take this seriously.”
He said: “She didn’t suffer any broken bones or need stitches but I worry so much about her. She is very shocked. He didn’t say anything to her, we didn’t know him and we have never seen him before.
“She came back from hospital and couldn’t sleep all last night. She is very stressed.”
The attack comes as the UK records a surge in Islamophobic offenses amid the outbreak of violence in Gaza.
In October, Islamophobic offenses in London rose 140 percent compared with the same period last year.
