The train had just crossed the Sydney Harbour Bridge when Sarah Alzoubi had a nagging feeling to look up from her phone. Across from her, on the empty train carriage, a man unzipped his pants and placed his hands down his trousers. The then 17-year-old university student quickly pulled off her headphones. As she walked away, Alzoubi heard him mutter “Islam” and “Muslim.”
“I was so frazzled and disoriented,” she recalls.
“You’re processing, ‘Was that what I thought it was?’ In my mind, I was like, ‘Wait, did that actually just happen to me?’”
The incident in 2015 has had a lasting impact ever since on how Alzoubi commutes on public transport.
“I don’t go on with my headphones, I don’t touch my phone, I’m completely aware of my surroundings,” she says.
“I know it makes more boring trips, but I’d rather be bored than be in danger.”
Last week, a long-awaited report from the special envoy to combat Islamophobia laid bare the persistence of anti-Muslim discrimination and a surge in Islamophobic attacks since 7 October 2023 – similar to the intensification after the September 11 attack.
Handing down the report, the special envoy, Aftab Malik, said Muslim women in particular face “the rap” of these incidents. It is well-documented that Muslim women are overwhelmingly targeted in Islamophobic attacks.
Since the Islamophobia Register Australia (IRA) launched in 2014, the victim-survivors reporting to it have been predominantly women and girls. In the IRA’s latest report, released in March, females accounted for 75% of reports.
These include Muslim women having their hijabs pulled off and being spat on in public.
The IRA’s executive director, Dr Nora Amath, says since 2014, reports from women have not dropped below about 70% of all reports.
The register has also documented a 530% increase in incidents reported since 7 October 2023 – when Hamas led a coordinated attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people. Alongside a rise of Islamophobia, antisemitic incidents have also increased in Australia since this date.
Alzoubi, who wears a hijab, says since October 2023, she has chosen to visit only areas of Sydney that have a higher Muslim population.
“I don’t know how people will react to me in public, being so visibly Muslim, and I can’t take that chance, especially when I have my son with me,” she says.
When she commutes with her 14-months-old boy, who loves trains, she is extra cautious.
“It’s not just me to think about any more, it’s also his safety to think about too,” she says.
Mariam Tohamy, a teacher and activist who wears a hijab, has experienced incidents such as being spat on in public in Sydney in 2007. But an Islamophobic incident she experienced in Bankstown’s Kmart, in Sydney’s west, last December felt like an escalation.
Tohamy and her 10-year-old daughter, who was also wearing a hijab, were browsing the bathroom section when she noticed pencil boxes flying off the shelves. A woman then began pulling boxes from the shelves towards her and later gestured a throat-slitting motion at her, Tohamy says.
In video footage of the incident, filmed by Tohamy, the woman yells “Are you proud of wearing ‘From the river to the sea’?” – referencing a slogan, often chanted at pro-Palestinian rallies, that was on matching t-shirts the pair were wearing. The phrase has been the subject of controversy, with some saying it advocates the eradication of Israel. Others, including Western Australian senator Fatima Payman, have argued that it is not antisemitic.
The woman in the footage is also heard saying “get fucked Allah”.
“That’s when I thought, yeah, that’s it. She’s there because I’m pro-Palestinian and obviously, wearing the hijab,” Tohamy says.
“I didn’t respond to her at all because of my safety.”
Tohamy says when she contacted police to report the incident she did not hear from them until the next day when a protest outside a local police station had been arranged.
When contacted for comment, New South Wales police said after receiving a triple zero call, the operator established the woman was in no imminent danger and that security was aware of the incident.
Police then made multiple attempts to speak with the caller to secure a statement so the incident could be investigated, the spokesperson said.
A 39-year-old woman was charged with publicly threatening violence on grounds of religion, behaving in an offensive manner in a public place, using offensive language in a public place and intimidation offences.
Despite the incidents, Tohamy says she continues to wear her hijab and pro-Palestine clothing.
Amath uses the term “gendered Islamophobia” to describe the anti-Muslim hatred experienced by women.
“Islamophobia intersects with sexism, and attacks against Muslim women are often not just about their religion but also [about] control and degradation,” she says.
In the IRA’s latest report, in March, all of the incidents of spitting were reported by women.
In Melbourne’s north, imam Alaa Elzokm says some women in the Elsedeaq mosque community are afraid of walking or shopping alone. He says their fear increased after an Islamophobia incident at a Melbourne shopping centre in February and an incident in which the words “Fuck off home” were graffitied on the mosque in May.
Elzokm says the mosque – which is open for anyone to attend – frequently hosts events, such as annual interfaith Iftar dinners and open days to engage with the broader community.
“We share a meal together, we’ll talk about those activities that are raising more awareness about who we are. We say to them, ‘Look how similar we are, maybe not in colour, but in our values,’” he says.
Amath says in many western societies Muslim women are stereotyped as oppressed and voiceless, which could contribute to hatred.
“It’s creates this paradox about the fact that some attackers feel justified in harassing them under the misguided belief that they’re helping liberate them,” she says.
“By attacking their headscarf or the hijab, the perpetrator may have that misguided belief that they’re actually liberating them.”
While the IRA has reported rising incidents of Islamophobia, Amath says under-reporting means the numbers are a “gross under-estimation” of the problem.
She said the IRA’s research has also revealed that only 18% of those who report to the registry report to police or other agencies such as the Australian Human Rights Commission, often because of mistrust and a fear of authority.
