Muslim women who wear a full veil say there are no-go areas in Leicester which they feel frightened to visit – even in a car. They claim they are subjected to abuse every day and that it is getting increasingly difficult to avoid such incidents in the city centre.

The revelations are contained in a new book by two criminology lecturers at the University of Leicester. More than 100 Leicester-based Muslim women were interviewed over a 12-month period for the book, called Islamophobia, Victimisation and the Veil.

One woman who took part in the study told the Mercury: “People feel free to have a pop at us every day. They swear, stare, spit and tell us to go home. They call us terrorists.”

The woman, who did not want to be named, said: “There are areas in Leicester we don’t go to, even in a car. It is also becoming more difficult to wear the niqab in the city centre. I don’t go in any more unless I really have to.”

The woman added: “I am as British as anyone. We follow the football and the tennis at home. My boys try to make a joke of it calling me ‘Ninja mum’. We had thought that if we ignore it, it would go away. It hasn’t.”

The book was written by Dr Irene Zempi and Neil Chakraborti.

Dr Zempi wore a niqab for a month to understand what her interviewees experienced. “Attitudes to me changed over night,” she said. “People were abusive and threatening, and where previously shop assistants were friendly, they simply ignored me. I did not want to go out and I became depressed.”

She added: “The level of abuse that participants faced depended upon whether they were in their local community or whether they were leaving their ‘comfort zone’. Some participants referred to ‘no-go zones’ for Muslims in Leicester such as the traditionally white areas of Braunstone, Beaumont Leys, Saffron Lane, New Parks, Hamilton and even Leicester city centre.”

Many of the women interviewed said they had moved to the city in the belief that Leicester would provide a better life for them and their families. However, one woman said she had tea thrown at her and another said she was elbowed in the stomach when pregnant.

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The number of reported instances of anti-Muslim hate crime in the UK has risen sharply since the murder of a British soldier in London last year, with women wearing traditional Islamic dress most likely to be the victims of abuse and street attacks, according to a new study.

But researchers believe that a widespread lack of trust in the police in Muslim communities and endemic under-reporting of hate crime masks the true scale of the problem, with most Islamophobic incidents, ranging from online trolling to verbal abuse and extreme violence, going unlogged and unpunished.

The publication of the report also comes amid concerns expressed by some Muslims about their safety on British streets following the murder of a female Saudi Arabian student in Colchester last month. Police say the attack may have been religiously motivated because the victim was wearing an abaya.

The study, conducted by researchers at Teesside University, is based on analysis of 734 incidents reported to and verified by case workers at Tell MAMA, an organisation monitoring anti-Muslim attacks, over 10 months from May 2013 to the end of February.

They included 23 cases of assault, 13 cases involving extreme violence, 56 attacks on mosques and hundreds of instances of online abuse, with an average of more than two confirmed cases a day.

Matthew Feldman, the co-author of the report, told Al Jazeera that while official figures showed a decline in hate crime generally, anti-Muslim abuse appeared to be bucking that trend.

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A new study has found the true extent to which veiled women bear the brunt of anti-Muslim abuse in the UK. Led by the University of Leicester it offers a unique insight into the experiences of veiled Muslim women as victims of Islamophobia, and the impact of this victimisation upon their families and wider Muslim communities.

Islamophobia, Victimisation and the Veil is a new book by Irene Zempi and Neil Chakraborti from the University of Leicester.

Irene said: “In a post-9/11 climate, veiled Muslim women are vulnerable to Islamophobic attacks in public because they are easily identifiable as Muslims. As with other forms of hate crime, Islamophobic victimisation falls under the police and local authority ‘radar’. The fact that it is such an under-reported phenomenon and under-researched topic means that victims of Islamophobia often suffer in silence.

“Our research reveals how Islamophobic victimisation is experienced as ‘part and parcel’ of wearing the veil, rather than as isolated ‘one-off’ incidents, and how repeat incidents of supposedly ‘low-level’ forms of hostility such as name-calling, persistent staring and other types of intimidatory behaviour place a potentially huge emotional burden on victims.

“The actual and potential threat of Islamophobic abuse and violence has long-lasting effects for veiled Muslim women, making them afraid to leave their house.”

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