Singapore—A 55-year old woman was walking to work on Friday (May 7) when she had an encounter with a man that quickly went south.
He allegedly kicked her in the chest and used a racial slur against her.
Her daughter, who goes by Parrvyy on social media, posted about the incident, including photos of the victim with wounds on her arms. The post was shared on the Wake Up, Singapore Facebook page on Sunday, May 9.
“Now my mum is afraid of taking a walk in her own country. I can’t comprehend the hatred it would have taken to attack a complete stranger,” wrote Ms Parrvyy.
The Straits Times (ST) reported on Monday (May 10) that the police are investigating the incident.
Ms Hindocha Nita Vishnubhai, a 55 year-old-Indian Singaporean, was brisk walking near Choa Chu Kang MRT station at around 8.30 am on Friday, on her way to her duties as a private tutor.
She had lowered her mask so that it rested on her chin while she walked.
At one point, Ms Nita heard a shout from a man behind her, telling her to put her mask up.
“She explained that she was brisk walking but he didn’t care,” wrote Ms Parrvyy, who also wrote that wearing a mask is unnecessary when one is brisk walking.
At that point, the man, whom ST describes as being in his late 20s, wearing a light-coloured T-shirt with dark shorts and sports shoes and accompanied by a woman, shouted at her again.
Ms Parrvyy wrote that the man “hurled vulgarities and racial slurs” at her mum.
She added, “F*** anyone who downplays racism here. All it takes is a trigger—be it anti-CECA sentiments or blaming a country in crisis for local outbreaks—for silent racism to manifest into violence.”
The victim told ST, “He then started to abuse me and even used a racial slur, I was absolutely shocked. I do not like confrontation and I wanted to avoid an argument with him, so I said ‘God bless you’ and decided to walk away.”
This apparently further provoked the man. He ran towards Ms Nita, landing a flying kick to her chest that knocked her to the ground. “I kept saying ‘he kicked me, he kicked me.’ I was in complete disbelief,” she added.
“My mum landed on her back and hurt herself. The guy ran away leaving my mum shaking in tears. She was too shocked to call the police and turned up to work bleeding and shaken.”
The fall left her with scratches on her hands and arms.
Fortunately, a kind bystander who had seen what happened helped Ms Nita after she was attacked.
She told ST, “I know I should have taken down the kind woman’s number, but in that moment, all I could do was escape from the situation. I was in a state of shock and I did not know how to react. I could not even get a photograph of my attacker.”
The victim, described as about 1.6m tall and weighing 60 kg, filed a police report on Friday night and will be going to a polyclinic to have her injuries examined.
/TISG
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