Maryan no longer wants to go out of her White Center home alone. She's afraid she'll be attacked again for being Muslim.
In the late afternoon of Oct. 16, she and her niece, Imaan, were stopped at an ARCO gas station in Tukwila when a woman drove up, caught sight of their head scarves, and suddenly started yelling "terrorist" and "suicide bomber" at them. She told them to "go back to your country," walked up to their car and slammed the driver's side car door on Maryan's ankle.
She kicked and punched Maryan and pulled off her scarf. She knocked Imaan to the ground, then got in her car and tried to run her over. The whole time, Imaan told reporters at a news conference held this morning by CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the woman kept yelling that she was a disabled veteran and no one would do anything. And no one did. Even though Imaan called out to other patrons to call the police, she said, customers came and went as if nothing were happening. A truck with young men in it even pointed and laughed at them.
"We were scared for our lives," Imaan said. "Everyone is looking at us, but no one is helping us at that point."
Imaan called 911, but when two Tukwila officers arrived, they, too, were indifferent, she said, asking the women -- who did not want last names used for fear of reprisal -- what they expected them to do. Eventually, the officers arrested the woman, who has been charged with malicious harassment. Imaan said the police later told her the woman was drunk.
Maryan is an American citizen from Somalia. Her niece is a University of Washington nursing student who was born in the U.S. The two women said they want to see their assailant reprimanded. CAIR is asking the King County prosecutor's office to prosecute the incident to the full extent of the law. The group has also written a letter to the FBI requesting it investigate the matter as a possible hate crime, which it says are on the rise across the nation and in Seattle.
"I don't know why she went that far. I don't know what she wanted from us," Imaan said. "As Muslims, we're human beings. We deserve the [same] respect as any other people."