Woman recounts verbal assault over hijab

Lubna Akl was out for a late evening bite with her family last week when she found herself at the receiving end of a verbal attack for wearing a hijab.

Akl, 30, was in a car with her three young children at Peters’ Drive-In the evening of Aug. 18, following two cars of family members as they waited for their turn to order.

Soon after Akl pulled in to the first lane, out of sight of her parents, grandmother and sisters in the far lane, she heard music blaring so loud she couldn’t place her order through the speaker.

She turned to see a woman in the passenger seat of a white truck in the lane next to her waving both of her middle fingers at Akl and swearing at her.

“Her middle fingers were directed at me and she was saying go back to your f-ing country, you f-ing c---,” Akl recounted Monday.

Akl said she wasn’t sure at first if the woman was talking to her. Then she tried to ignore her.

“I looked again to see if she was still going at it, and sure enough she was,” she said. “She just kept getting worse and worse.”

Akl then pretended to take a photo of the woman with her phone, thinking it might make her back off.

The confrontation escalated, with the woman getting out of her car and coming over to Akl’s vehicle, pressing her middle fingers against the closed window.

“My kids were starting to cry, so I didn’t want to make it worse in front of them,” she said.

Akl got out of her car and asked the woman, “do you have a problem with me?”

“And then she came so close to my face, like we had a really bad confrontation at that moment and she said I want you to take off your jabib (hijab) and go back to your country and you don’t belong here, Canada isn’t your country, you’d be an f-ing idiot to think that it was.”

During the confrontation, Akl said she was waiting and hoping for someone in the packed parking lot or the busy ordering area outside the restaurant to intervene.

“I’m waiting for somebody to at least pull your head out of your car, if you don’t want to get out, and just say ‘hey, you guys, break it up,’ or just say ‘hey, back off — leave her alone.’ Something. But not a single person to just say something.”

Akl got back in her car, where her children were crying.

“My daughter’s saying, ‘Mama, why are people taking pictures of you?’” said Akl.

Not knowing what to do, Akl then called the police, who attended and spoke to both parties.

A spokesperson for the Calgary Police Service confirmed that officers responded to a call about a verbal altercation at the busy 16th Ave. restaurant, but said there was no criminal offence such as threats of violence.

Since sharing her experience in a

I looked again to see if she was still going at it, and sure enough she was. She just kept getting worse and worse.

public post on her sister’s Facebook account, Akl said she’s received an outpouring of supportive messages from friends, family members and people who saw her story who are vowing to “stand up to bullying” if they witness any similar interactions. The post has now been shared more than 180 times.

Akl extended her thanks in a follow-up Facebook comment to those who reached out to support her.

“I initially made the post public in hopes of making a change, even if it was small,” she wrote. “I can already see the difference.”