“My Lord is not on a bench, but on His throne! If I lied against YOU, then may His wrath be upon me. If YOU lied that YOU didn’t open my face veil, then may His wrath,anger and punishment be upon YOU till YOU publicly repent and apologize as YOU violated me in public!”
Those were the words of Shareefah Yunus, a Muslim with Islamic veil (Niqob) who was assaulted at the Lagos state secretariat on Monday. Shareefah narrated her ordeal
“November 20th 2017 I went to Alausa secretariat at Adeyemi Bero Hall for an exhibition.
I wanted to talk to a lady concerning a proposed exhibition some women entrepreneurs are organising. She is said to be the one who was given the contract to partition the exhibition center at the event.
As i called her and she turned towards me,without provocation and excuse of any sort, she yanked, pulled and lifted my niqob(face cover) in public ,exposing me and saying in derision , “who are you”?
I was shocked , extremely embarrassed, upset and felt violated!
I asked, “why would you do that” ? She replied,” I don’t have time for this,I am here to work,if you have anything to say to me go and say it to my boys”!
I went after her and told her she could apologise and she shouted ,”sorry,is that what you want to hear”,she hissed and walked away!
Imagine someone lifting up your skirts while pulling down your pants in public? That feeling of being victimized and oppressed was how I felt, her non remorseful actions and speech made it abhorrent !
People came out to comfort me as i was weeping,I was so upset and kept wondering why would someone have so much hatred…
I knew she was highly connected as she talked with the arrogance of someone who is. My sisters went to her and she kept shouting at them she has no time,besides she isn’t a Muslim so how would she know if it was wrong!
I am posting this for several reasons. In the last few weeks i have been assaulted more than thrice while someone threatened to beat me up,my crime has always been, having the guts to dress as a muslim woman in Lagos/Nigeria!
I have been called a terrorist, insulted and abused. All these by mainly none muslims. I am shocked at how Nigerians have become so filled with hatred and intolerance. People will assault/insult us and say, “e de ni elesin ni yin”! People will tell us leave them, yet they cant take it. In fact when i went to report her, someone actually gave her the excuse that she did what she did cos she was scared of me,while another person said Nigeria is dangerous now so she did that for protection!
Some elders apologised on her behalf, but lo and behold i saw her again and she denied what she did and then threatened me arrogantly with “her siblings being on the bench”!”
But on further checks, the woman who made this assault was given away by eye witnesses as Kemi Ilori. Kemi Ilori according to her profile on LinkedIn is a professional exhibitionist. She was at the Adeyemi Bero hall on that fateful day for an exhibition as stated by Shareefah.
Since her account gone viral, several Islamic organisations and individuals like the former chairman of Ondo state Muslim Pilgrim welfare board have condemned the act saying it is the height of religious intolerance especially in the southwestern part of Nigeria.
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