A Calgary woman who came to visit her family in Manitoba this summer says she was shocked by the racist verbal attack she endured when she asked a stranger for directions. In an exchange Calgary teacher Kaniz Fatima captured on video, a man who described himself as a “Nazi” told her to take off her “head towel off” because it “supports Muslims.” He also told her to “go back to your country.” “His comments actually shocked me a lot and then I was scared too,” she said.
Fatima was in Manitoba to visit family in early July. She and her family were driving in Pinawa, a small town about 95 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, when they got lost. Fatima said when she stopped to ask a stranger for directions, he called her a “parasite” and hurled racist insults at her.
She posted a video she took of part of the encounter on social media this week. “You are being racist,” Fatima can be heard telling the man in the video. “I’m a f—— Nazi, b—,” the man can be heard replying in the video. “Do you know what a Nazi is?” He then goes on to demand that Fatima remove her head covering. “This is my hijab. Why should I take it off?” Fatima can be heard replying in the video. Two women passing by can then be heard confronting the man. Fatima says she and her family eventually got in their car and drove away.
“I felt a responsibility to talk against racism, to stand up against Islamophobia,” Fatima told CBC News in an interview Wednesday. “I felt like I need to uphold my Canadian values and stand up for inclusion and justice because this is our country and we belong to this country.” She praised the passersby who stopped to defend her.
Fatima, who came to Canada from Bangladesh in 2009, said she’s never experienced anything like the racist attack before. Even so, she said she has heard of similar encounters and feels people are currently more open about expressing racist views than they have been in recent history. The political situation in the United States may be partly to blame, she said.
Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/racism-against-calgary-woman-in-p…
