The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Couple tell of racism ordeal on our streets
Angus councillor left ‘heartbroken’ after stranger screams ‘n-word’ at partner
A young couple have revealed the disgusting racist abuse they endured in a Dundee city centre attack.
Angus councillor Ben Lawrie said he was left “heartbroken” after a young woman screamed the ‘n-word’ in his girlfriend Mariam Mahmood’s face moments after the St Andrews University pair had got off a bus at the Seagate station.
His 22-year-old girlfriend said she was “shocked and upset”, despite having endured racist abuse throughout her life.
Mr Lawrie, who is Angus Council’s youngest elected member, stunned colleagues with details of the vicious slur during discussion of the local authority’s anti-racism strategy.
“I was perhaps more shocked than Mariam at the time because, sadly, she’s used to it by now,” he said.
One of Tayside’s youngest elected councillors has revealed the vicious racist slur his girlfriend was subjected to as they walked together through the centre of Dundee.
Ben Lawrie and his partner were targeted by a young woman near the city’s bus station, who walked straight up to them and screamed the ‘n-word’ directly into Mariam Mahmood’s face.
Ben, a Liberal Democrat councillor for Monifieth and Sidlaw, told how the incident had left him “heartbroken”.
But his girlfriend said the Dundee incident is just the latest racist abuse she has had to endure throughout her life, including a post 9/11 window-smashing attack on the Pakistani family’s Glasgow home.
Both Ben, 23, and Mariam, 22, have recently graduated in international relations from St Andrews University, the course which brought them together and led to the start of their relationship.
Ben is the youngest member of Angus Council and, in comments made during discussion of the authority’s anti-racism education programme at a meeting of the children and learning committee, shocked fellow members when he revealed details of the vile incident.
He was speaking up over the importance of public figures leading by example in the fight against racism following the controversy which engulfed former foreign secretary Boris Johnson over recent comments about Muslim dress.
“Mariam told me about incidents of racism that she’s faced growing up – how after 9/11 people threw bricks through her house window in what they must have thought was some sort of revenge attack,” he said.
“I witnessed it for myself earlier this year when the two of us were walking through Dundee and a young woman approached us and screamed the n-word in Mariam’s face.
“It broke my heart. I was even more shocked than her because, sadly, she’s used to it by now.”
Mariam said: “I’ve grown up with this throughout my life when people would use racial slurs almost as ammo against you but Ben had never witnessed it so the bus station incident was shocking for him.
“This girl was standing with a group of friends and just walked over and screamed it right in my face.
“Her friends didn’t look that impressed – but none of them called her out. It’s very disheartening.”
Ben added: “We can use this experience to shine a light on this sort of thing and in my comments to the committee I was trying to emphasise that if we are to teach our young people to respect one another, we have to start by leading by example.
“If we all take up the cause, racism is something we can stamp out together.”
broke my heart. I was even more shocked than her, because, sadly, she’s used to it by now