A hijab-wearing woman and her friend were harassed and denied service by shopkeepers at Sarojini Nagar market in New Delhi on Thursday evening around 9:30 PM, in what appears to be a disturbing act of communal bias based on their religious identity.
“At first, the shopkeepers loudly chanted ‘Jai Bhawani’ from the movie Chhava. But when they noticed me, their tone changed—they said, ‘We don’t sell clothes to the children of Aurangzeb,'” recalled 19-year-old Nida Sultana, a Delhi University student.
“There were two or three of them, and since it was evening and I was alone except for my friend, I didn’t think it was wise to argue or take immediate action. My priority was to leave safely. But the incident shook me, so I recorded a video. At that moment, legal action wasn’t on my mind—I just wanted to get out of there unharmed,” she added.
The two ladies were left traumatized and embarrassed by the experience. “We were simply shopping like any other customer, but the way they treated us made us feel unwanted and unsafe in our own country,” one of them told The Observer Post.
The victims have now called for action against the discriminatory attitude of the vendors and have asked the government authorities to make Sarojini Nagar market an open area for all the shoppers regardless of their religion.
Sarojini Nagar market, a popular and inexpensive shopping hub in Delhi, has landed in the middle of the row revolving around rising religious discrimination and intolerance in public spaces. The episode has also triggered outraged responses, with several calling for stronger laws against hate-based discrimination in commercial areas.
Further details about the topic are awaited as the situation develops.
