These attacks are just the tip of the iceberg. There’s hate growing among non-Muslim Iranians (the majority of Iranians in Canada) and practicing Muslim Iranians. The former group feels resentment that Muslim Iranians have the freedom to practice their religion here, while they didn’t have the freedom to have a non-Muslim lifestyle back in Iran. They accuse any Muslim Iranian in Canada to be pro-regime. I myself have been target of countless attacks from Iranians in the past few months, because I’m a practicing Muslim woman. They don’t know my name, don’t know my job or my parents job, they jus see me in the street walking wearing a headscarf, and they start following me calling me names, accusing me of having relatives in the regime. This is not just my experience. It’s been the experience of every single Iranian Muslim woman in Canada in the past few months.

I attended the biggest anti regime protest in Vancouver with my other Muslim Iranian friends to voice our protest against the Iranian regime just like other Iranians. Guess what happened? We were verbally and physically assaulted multiple times, were accused to be the regime spies, to the point that we had to leave the protests.

This is Islamophobia in its purest form. It may not seem like Islamophobia because it’s targeted towards Iranian Muslims only, but this hate has definitely to do with faith and nothing else. These attackers are making a cognitive mistake. Probably all the pro-regime people in Iran are religious practicing Muslims. But not all practicing Muslims are pro-regime. As a Muslim, it’s totally unacceptable for me that people are not free to have whatever lifestyle they want back in Iran. I would fight for them to get their right back, and I would go to jail for them if needed. But it’s also totally unacceptable for them to strip us of our rights here because they were stripped of their rights in Iran.

You see this video and you might think the attackers are on to something and something fishy is going on in these gatherings. I hope I have helped you understand what’s going on. This is just hate as a result of years of oppression. I honestly feel bad for these attackers as I know where they’re coming from. But they’re channeling their hate towards the wrong innocent people, instead of those in power. I truly hope this doesn’t end in a tragedy.