Labour’s Sabia Kamali told a council meeting that her own daughter, aged eight, had been a victim of hate crime, reports Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter

Labour councillor Sabia Kamali addresses Monday’s meeting

A Newham councillor has spoken out against Islamophobic attacks on women in the borough.

Labour’s Sabia Kamali told a council meeting yesterday (Monday 8th) of recent incidents, including a woman who was punched in the ribs in Plaistow – and that a rock was even thrown at her eight-year-old daugher.

Cllr Kamali said that as someone who wears the hijab she had “walked the streets in fear”.

She also said she and her daughter were the victims of an unprovoked assault outside her home shortly after the Hamas attacks against Israel on 7th October 2023.

Cllr Kamali said: “After October 7th my daughter – who was eight – became a victim of hate crime.

“I had just picked her up from school. I parked outside our home. A man threw a stone, smashing the back window – just missing her. She sat surrounded by broken glass.”

Cllr Kamali also said she’d been told of other instances of Islamophobic attacks on women, including a woman in Plaistow who was “punched in the ribs”.

She continued: “When she spoke online, she was attacked again – racist abuse so vicious she deleted her social media out of fear for her children’s safety.

“Another woman’s hijab was pulled so violently she feared her neck would snap. Another was spat at.”

Cllr Kamali added: “These incidents rarely make national headlines, yet their impact spreads silently through every Muslim woman in this borough.”

The Labour councillor made her speech to mark the United Nations’ “16 days of activism against gender-based violence” campaign and said she wanted “to ensure women like myself are finally seen, heard and protected”.

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