The Muslim woman in the viral image from the Westminster terror attack has responded, urging critics to “look past her attire”.
The woman, who has been relentlessly trolled and accused of “casually walking by” a victim, has said she tried to help the victims.
She contacted Tell MAMA to tell her side of the story.
“I’m shocked and totally dismayed at how a picture of me is being circulated on social media,” she said.
“To those individuals who have interpreted and commented on what my thoughts were in that horrific and distressful moment, I would like to say not only have I been devastated by witnessing the aftermath of a shocking and numbing terror attack, I’ve also had to deal with the shock of finding my picture plastered all over social media by those who could not look beyond my attire, who draw conclusions based on hate and xenophobia.”
The woman said that in that moment she felt sadness, fear and concern. She had talked to other witnesses to try and find out what was happening and to see whether she could be of any help.
@SouthLonestar
The pic of that girl’s got many retweets , but they didn’t like to retweet that guy’s pic even though he did the same thing. pic.twitter.com/7I607tviIR— ???? راشد بطي باليوحه (@rashedalyoha) March 22, 2017
Top Comments
This brings to mind a recent incident I encountered. I was walking towards my car when I came across a scene where a woman lying on the ground was being treated by a few people. I quickly walked passed, wanting to give them privacy and to give the woman some dignity by not looking. I considered going up to ask if they needed help, but I'm sure they would've already called an ambulance if it was necessary, and that my action would've been intrusive. If someone had taken a photo of me then, I would've seemed cold and uncaring too. People who started that meme of that poor Muslim woman clearly are 1) full of hate and, 2) have too much time on their hands.
The worse thing was she was calling her parents to tell them that she was safe. I find that fair and reasonable.
To deem every Muslim as a terrorist is like saying every Caucasian is racist. We need to stop drawing conclusions based on face value photos without context. I truly feel for this woman, it would've been a horrible time and will be awful memories for her.