Glen Ellyn resident Fatima Nazeer says she had just dropped off one of her children at school when two young men began following her.
“Then they pulled up to the side of me and started yelling profanities calling me terrorist, Hindu--which is not even my religion,” she told NBC 5 in an interview Tuesday.
Nazeer, who wears hijab--the head covering worn by some Muslim women--says she didn’t realize at first what was happening.
“At first i thought there was something wrong or maybe my seat belt was sticking out of the door or something," she said. "But they were actually yelling racist profanities."
It happened around 1:40 p.m. Monday afternoon in Woodridge.
Nazeeer shot video on her cellphone but only captures the tail end of the encounter and not the alleged abusive language.
“Look at this *** lady,” one of the pair says in the video.
The driver can be seen along with a passenger laughing and shooting cellphone video as they pull past her.
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“My initial intent was just to ask them to pull over and lets talk about it," she said.
Initially, Nazeer was unsure about whether to report the incident, chalking it up to an unfortunate ignorance that she says has become all too common.
Nazeer and her husband, Omar Ali, filed a complaint with the Woodridge Police Department. But her hope is to being awareness and understanding.
"They just chased you this time next time maybe they could try to run you off the road," Ali said. "It could be something else, it could be a huge issue and we don’t want that to happen to anybody else."
Nazeer says she would like to talk to the pair that allegedly harassed her and has a message for them.
“Just give them a chance and talk to them and interact a little bit," she said. "Usually we find that we have more in common than what divides us."
CAIR Chicago, a Muslim civil rights group, says it is looking into the incident. Woodridge police are also investigating.
