American Muslim women learn to fight back with 'Hijab grab' defence

CHICAGO: Zaineb Abdulla is teaching women who wear hijab in the United States on how to defend themselves successfully against ruffians who may try to inflict physical harm on them, as hate crimes against Muslim women spike following the electoral victory of Donald Trump.

Zaineb Abdulla has been imparting knowledge to women on how to defend themselves in the United States in the form of self-defence classes. These girls include Muslims as well as other women who are deaf or physically impaired. However, the morning after it became clear to everyone that Donald Trump was all set to replace Barack Obama as the next President of the United States, Zaineb received lots of calls from worried women asking her what should they do in the following scenario: If someone grabs their headscarves.

Hence, she immediately sought help from a fellow trainer Misho Ceko, of Chicago Mixed Martial Arts, to teach women how to defend themselves in case someone tries to grab their hijab. What followed was a set of self-defence moves which would enable women to fight back against the 'hijab grab'.

"In this postelection hate-crime spike, self defense is more important than ever. Practice this move until it becomes muscle memory and teach your body to react before thinking," she said. 

She decided to post videos of the moves on Facebook, in which she can be seen performing the self-defence moves on a partner, using sign language to enable the viewer to understand the steps. The next morning she woke up, Zaineb realised that the videos had gone viral; one had been shared 57,000 times and had received as many as 3.5 million views. 

"I have a lot of messages from women saying they didn’t think it was possible to fight back," said Abdulla. 

Many incidents have been reported across the United States of Muslim women, particularly those wearing the hijab, of being attacked or robbed as a result of hate. Critics have slammed President-elect Donald Trump's rants against Muslims for inciting such violence against Muslim women in the USA.