Ninety percent of Muslim woman have suffered form of racist abuse or violence in Australia since the September 11 attacks in the United States, a new report revealed here Wednesday.
The report, by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, found that while most Arabs and Muslims had experienced some form of racist abuse in recent years, women were at the frontline because of their wearing of the traditional headscarf, the Hijab.
"We listened to stories of women, mostly Muslim women wearing the Hijab anxious to walk their children to school in fear of being spat on, abused or ridiculed," acting discrimination commissioner William Jonas said at the release of the report.
"We listened to the stories of women and girls who said they'd been abused or had objects thrown at them from moving cars, sometimes causing injury."
The report, called "Isma", Arabic for "listen", focused on the experiences of some 1,400 Arab and Muslim Australians in 69 focus groups held across Australia last year. It was launched by Jonas before a meeting of about 300 members of Sydney's Arab and Muslim community, including Australia's Mufti, Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali.
Jonas said its findings were not surprising because people were often targeted if they expressed their religion in a way that differentiated them from other people.
But the commission called for new federal laws to protect people from discrimination and vilification on the basis of religion.
It cited the example of one woman wearing the Hijab who was forced to defend herself with an umbrella after a man set his three dogs on her in Perth.
Another woman in Brisbane described how her niece was injured by rocks thrown at her.
And in Sydney, an Arab woman was pelted with stones as she walked along a suburban street.
Jonas said he had been particularly upset to hear of one seventh generation Arabic Australian who had been told by someone to go back to his own country.
The study found most had experienced an increase in violence or offensive remarks since the September 11 2001 attacks in the United States followed by the Bali bombings in October 2002.
But Jonas said the experiences of the focus group were not been reflected in a rising number of complaints to police, due to fear of victimisation. "Currently there's no federal law that makes discrimination or vilification on the basis of race or religion unlawful," he said. "A federal law would ensure there's a national safety net protecting everyone around the country."
Lebanese Muslim Association spokesman Keysar Trad described the report as a sad indictment on Australia.
"One would have thought that our standards in Australia would not have brought society down to a level where a certain section of society was discriminated against because of their religion, because of their name, or because of the way they dress."