Boston launches poster campaign to combat Islamophobia in public

Campaign comes as hate crimes spike across US

Posters depicting how to safely help stop incidents of Islamophobia have been plastered across Boston by city officials in a bid to mitigate hate crime rate.

Illustrations show a man towering threateningly over a women wearing a hijab in a public transport while another woman looks on, deliberating whether to step in or not.

Posters were designed by a Paris-based artist in 2015.

The guide, according to city officials, encourages bystanders to strike up a conversation with Muslims, who are subjected to harassment, to help empower the victim and disempower the assailant thereby stopping the abuse from taking place.

Designed by a Paris-based artist, Maeril, in 2015, the posters instruct people to ignore the attacker using an approach known as “non-complementary behaviour” – which states assailants tend to mellow down if they lose captive audience.



The campaign comes as hate crimes spike across the US, mostly against Muslims, Jews, Blacks, Latinos, Asians and the LGBT community. Cities including New York and San Francisco have also adopted similar initiatives.

Speaking to WBUR, Faisa Sharif, Boston’s citywide Somali neighbourhood service liason, said it is “an awkward place to be in when you see someone being harassed.”



"[The poster] does feature a Muslim woman, a woman in hijab. But I think it applies across all people from different backgrounds who are just in a tense situation in public or being harassed in public,” she added.

"The climate across the nation is certainly different under the current White House administration," said Yusuf Vali, executive director of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Centre. "The Boston-Muslim community is feeling what the rest of the nation is feeling: a lot of uncertainty and a sense of insecurity."

He said it was about time an initiative like this was brought forward, adding the city’s efforts to make Muslims feel welcome were heartening.

"We are touched by the mayor's team taking this on," Vali said. "It speaks to how Boston truly is a home for its Muslims."

This article originally appeared on the WBUR.