Shepparton general practitioner LM* and her husband HA* were parking outside Chemist Warehouse when a man assaulted and accosted them.

‘‘He took his head outside his car window and started yellow ‘effing Muslims, effing immigrants, leave this place’,’’ LM said.

‘‘He jumped from the car and straight away started punching my chest,’’ HA said.

‘‘We have a very good reputation here. We don’t have problems with anyone, we don’t have problems with police,’’ LM said.

‘‘We always considered people having fights in the streets as people with problems.

‘‘So I told my husband, ‘You better go back to the car, it’s not us, we don’t do that’.

‘‘Then the guy pushes me from the back, and (HA) pushes the guy back.’’

LM bravely confronted the man, told him to go back to his car and leave, took a photo of his car and reported the abuse to police.

Then, she broke down.

She said the racial abuse had affected almost every aspect of her life.

‘‘I’m a very tough lady, I don’t cry, I face problems, but this one really knocked me down,’’ LM said.

‘‘I cried in public for the first time.

‘‘It really changed me, I think forever. I used to smile to everybody when I go shopping or go to a meeting, I don’t do that anymore.’’

LM, HA and their two daughters moved to Shepparton from Sydney three years ago.

HA moved to Australia from Iraq more than 10 years ago, LM shortly after.

She said she had never had any issues living in Shepparton before October 16.

‘‘I don’t want to be here anymore, I hate it,’’ LM said.

‘‘But if we go back to the Middle East, I’m a doctor, he’s an engineer — we’re dead, we’re targets — where else do we go?

‘‘Are we really strangers here after all that time? That guy gave us the feeling that we are and we’re unwanted.’’

There were more than two people in the carpark watching that day, she said.

‘‘There were people watching and they said nothing,’’ LM said.

‘‘If someone doesn’t stop them they’ll keep doing it, maybe it will get more physical.’’

LM said she wanted to share her story for those who can’t defend themselves and to encourage people to call out racism.

‘‘I can defend myself, I can say things, but this shouldn’t happen at all,’’ she said.

‘‘Do you know the number of immigrants in Shepparton? It’s huge, so imagine if every person thought they had the right to humiliate others just because they dress differently or look differently.

‘‘Especially here, the Muslims here belong to very peaceful subgroups.’’

With a silk scarf covering her hair, LM said she did not understand why someone felt they could judge her by what she was wearing or her religion.

‘‘No one knows that half of the Muslim world are uncovered,’’ she said.

‘‘It is a personal choice, similar to the Christians.

‘‘I don’t ask you why do you dress like that, I don’t say, ‘You’re showing a lot of your body to me’. It’s very personal.’’

Source