A 13-year-old Muslim schoolgirl was allegedly subjected to racist and Islamophobic abuse on a Sydney bus after confronting a man she believed was photographing another student.
NSW Police is investigating the incident, which occurred on Thursday afternoon as the girl, Janna, was travelling towards Greenacre in Sydney’s south-west.
According to her mother, Roula, Janna noticed an older man taking photographs of another girl in school uniform and warned the student.
The man then allegedly turned on Janna.
“He started calling her a terrorist,” Roula told SBS News.
Video footage circulated on social media appears to show the man calling the teenager a “terrorist”, an “immigrant dog” and an “immigrant mutt”, while telling her she did not deserve to be in Australia.
Janna repeatedly told him she was only 13 years old.
Adults reportedly remained silent
Perhaps equally disturbing was the reaction of other passengers.
Roula said only one adult, a woman wearing hijab, intervened while several men nearby remained silent.
“There was a lot of men sitting right next to that man and they were just looking up and looking back down at their phones,” she said.
Other schoolchildren could reportedly be heard challenging the man and telling him to stop being racist.
Roula also questioned why the bus driver did not intervene, although it is understood the driver may not have been aware of the full seriousness of what was taking place.
Transport for NSW described the man’s alleged behaviour as “deplorable”, saying everyone had the right to feel safe on public transport.
Police said passengers were verbally abused by an unknown man before he exited the bus on Liverpool Road in Strathfield. Investigations remain ongoing.
Muslim women and girls increasingly targeted
The incident comes amid growing concern over reported Islamophobia in Australia.
The Islamophobia Register Australia says reports have increased more than sixfold since October 2023.
Research covering 2023 and 2024 recorded 309 in-person Islamophobic incidents, more than double the previous annual reporting average.
Muslim women and girls made up 79% of reported victims of verbal abuse and 95% of reported victims in incidents on public transport.
Among cases involving women, 86% involved women or girls identifiable as Muslim through the hijab or niqab.
Aishah Ali, executive director of the Islamophobia Register Australia, described the attack on Janna as a reflection of a wider national problem.
“The harassment of a young, visibly Muslim thirteen-year-old girl is a microcosm of the state of Islamophobia nationwide,” she said.
Fear of taking the bus again
Roula said her daughter was initially shaken by the incident but has since been coping better.
Her concern now is whether Janna will feel safe travelling alone again.
“I don’t want her to be scared to catch the bus home,” she said.
Roula believes her daughter’s hijab made her an immediate target.
“Because we have the hijab on, we’re targeted,” she said.
The incident is another reminder that anti-Muslim hostility in Australia is not confined to political rhetoric or online abuse.
For some Muslim women and girls, it follows them onto buses, into public spaces and into ordinary daily life.
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