The Muslim News - Suspended sentence for Somali attacker

Issue 237, Friday 30 January 2009 - 4 Safar 1430

Suspended sentence for Somali attacker

By Elham Asaad Buaras

A Hove woman who assaulted a Somali refugee then pulled her Hijab off and used it to strangle her was given five month prison suspended sentence on December 13, 2008. Tanya Squires, 21, was also ordered to pay Ł200 compensation to Barka Ali-Abdulla and wear an electronic tag and not go out between 8pm and 6am until February 5.

Abdulla said she was left afraid for her life and unable to go out after she was attacked in August 9, 2008.

Squires hurled a stone at Abdulla’s head in an unprovoked attack near Churchill Square, Brighton then spat in her face.

Squires then punched her in the eye and then pulled off her hijab and tried to strangle Abdulla with it.

Abdulla said, “My hijab was pulled off my head which is an insult to my religion. I am now afraid to open my front door and will not go out because I am scared of another attack. I suffer recurrent nightmares of what happened that day and do not sleep or eat properly. I feel violated, degraded and ashamed because of what happened because Muslim women should never show their hair in public.”

Somali community leader in Brighton, Ahmed Zakariya told The Muslim News he and the community were “sickened by the incident” but insisted that interfaith relations in Brighton are “very good, these kind of assaults are thank God very rare indeed.”

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