By Mark Hallum
The victory of President-elect Donald Trump set the stage for reports of harassment taking place in public spots where New Yorkers are commonly forced to tolerate one another: city buses.
Farica Nizam, a Muslim-American woman from Bellerose, reported abuse over Facebook Nov. 10 in a lengthy post describing her experience on a Q43 bus on her morning commute to her internship in Manhattan. Nizam was approached by a middle-aged couple about 10 minutes into the ride, she said, and was told to remove her hijab.
“My reaction — complete fear and anxiety,” Nizam said. “I broke out into tears, frustrated at myself for exhibiting so much weakness but unable to do anything else… They started yelling at me and telling me to take off the disgusting piece of cloth on my head, saying that it wasn’t allowed anymore.”
The incident turned into an argument between passengers, some of whom stood up to the couple who were trying grab the hijab from her head.
“I got off the bus, and walked home from where I was, crying the whole way home,” said Nizam.
The woman of Bengali descent said the bus driver took no action to intervene in the dispute.
Nizam told Facebook friends to remove her from their Friends List if they had voted for Trump saying, “You are the ones that taunted and humiliated me this morning. You are the ones that have traumatized me, instilled a growing fear inside of and brought an overwhelming feeling of terror. I will never forgive you.”
Nizam told followers the incident is likely to repeat itself in the days following the election, but said she would remain strong going forward.
“I never imagined that security and safety were asking too much of a country that claims to be oh so concerned with opportunity, liberty, and love,” she said.
The post received over 1,600 shares and 2,900 reactions.
A similar incident was reported by a Facebook user by the name Adriana Elizabeth about an experience her sister conveyed over text message. The Nov. 9 post describes a group of female students from St. Francis Preparatory School in Fresh Meadows boarding a city bus who took note of the number of black and Hispanic people sitting in the middle of the bus. The girls looked at Elizabeth’s sister and asked why she was not seated at the back of the bus.
“Aren’t you supposed to be sitting in the back of the bus now? Like Trump is president!” the Facebook post said. “This is what Trump does. It hasn’t even been a day. People think it’s OK to do this now?”
The post was shared 331 times and 261 reactions.
Reach reporter Mark Hallum by e-mail at mhall
