Hijab-wearing student rattled after threatening encounter
SASKATOON Rida grabbed a coffee at Lower Place Riel, having just stepped off the bus on her way to class at the University of Saskatchewan. She was about to have an encounter that changed her view of her safety on campus and her level of comfort with talking to others about being Muslim.
She went to find a lid at the coffee station by the store’s entrance when a man twice her small stature approached her in a way she found threatening.
You don’t have to wear “that thing ” around your head anymore, he told her, referencing her hijab.
“I’m a bit confused and shaken, about what he said to me. And he takes a pause and continues on,” she said, not wanting to use her last name out of concern for her safety.
She remembers the smirk on his face and the mocking tone of his voice. “He continues by saying ‘men shouldn’t force you to wear that thing around your head.’”
Rida said she told the man it was her choice to wear a hijab. He kept moving closer to her as he spoke. As she went to leave, his tone became more threatening, and he asked if she would be disowned if she removed it.
It was 8:15 a.m. on Sept. 20. About three hours later, the university sent a message to students reporting that a suspect had been arrested in connection with online threats involving the execution of “Saudi leaders” in the university ’s bowl. He was charged with uttering death threats.
The university has since banned the 24-year-old man from its campus. An administrator told the Starphoenix late last week there are indications mental illness may have been a factor.
When Rida later saw a photo of the man who was charged, she recognized him as the same man who approached her. She trembled and ran through the “what-ifs” in her head, she said. She reported the incident to police on Sunday.
The soft-spoken student said she has been asked before about why she wears a hijab — but this incident was different because of how aggressive he was toward her.
“As I was heading to my class, these words just kept on repeating in my head. I couldn’t stop thinking about what he had told me,” she said.
Rida’s experience, combined with the vandalism of a Muslim student group’s posters and the attack on Muslim elder Abu Sheikh this past July, has left her sense of security in pieces. Sheikh was walking home from prayers on July 13, wearing traditional clothes. The driver of a truck tried to run him over and as Sheikh got to his yard, and one of the truck’s occupants picked up a brick and threw it through the front window of his house.
She said she shared her experience and how it’s affected her because she wants others to be respectful and not make assumptions when they talk to someone about their religion.
“There’s that kind of sense for me right now that I don’t feel comfortable talking about my hijab or my religion right now, because I don’t know if something like this will happen again,” she said.