Instagram account of the #HijabUppropet campaign Hundreds of Swedish women have taken to Twitter to post pictures of themselves with traditional Muslim headscarves. The campaign, which began on Monday, is to show solidarity with a woman, six months pregnant, who was attacked in a Stockholm suburb last Saturday, apparently for wearing a hijab.
The police are now investigating the incident as a \"racially motivated attack\", prompting activists on Facebook to urge women from across Sweden, regardless of their faith, to wear a headscarf this week to protest against violence towards Muslim women and to show support for religious freedoms.
A number of Sweden’s well known faces including TV presenter Gina Dirawi, singer Sibille Attar and also Green Party MP Asa Romson have joined the campaign, posting hijab clad photos of themselves under the dedicated hashtag #HijabUppropet, which means \"hijab outcry\" in Swedish.
And men are also rallying to the cause, keen to voice their solidarity with victims of Islamophobic harassment or attacks.
In an article published in Swedish daily Aftonbladet, the instigators of the movement say the number of Islamophobic incidents in Sweden is on the rise and demand the government does everything in its power to ensure the safety of veiled Muslim women.
The activists also met with Sweden’s Justice Minister Beatrice Ask on Tuesday to discuss the problem, and a rally is being planned in Stockholm for this Thursday to support Muslim women’s right to wear the hijab in public, in safety, in Sweden.