A woman was subjected to vile racist abuse as she walked through the centre of Dundee.
Ben Lawrie and his partner were targeted by a young woman near the city’s bus station, who walked straight up to them and screamed the ‘n-word’ directly into Mariam Mahmood’s face.
Mr Lawrie, a Liberal Democrat councillor for Monifieth and Sidlaw and one of Tayside’s youngest elected councillors, told how the incident had left him “heartbroken”.
But his girlfriend said the Dundee incident is just the latest racist abuse she has had to endure throughout her life, including a post 9/11 window-smashing attack on the Pakistani family’s Glasgow home.
Both Ben, 23, and Mariam, 22, have recently graduated in international relations from St Andrews University, the course which brought them together and led to the start of their relationship.
Mr Lawrie is the youngest member of Angus Council and, in comments made during discussion of the authority’s anti-racism education programme at a meeting of the children and learning committee, shocked fellow members when he revealed details of the vile incident.
He was speaking up over the importance of public figures leading by example in the fight against racism following the controversy which engulfed former foreign secretary Boris Johnson over recent comments about Muslim dress.
“Mariam told me about incidents of racism that she’s faced growing up – how after 9/11 people threw bricks through her house window in what they must have thought was some sort of revenge attack,” he said.
“I witnessed it for myself earlier this year when the two of us were walking through Dundee and a young woman approached us and screamed the n-word in Mariam’s face.
“It broke my heart. I was even more shocked than her because, sadly, she’s used to it by now.”
Mariam said: “I’ve grown up with this throughout my life when people would use racial slurs almost as ammo against you but Ben had never witnessed it so the bus station incident was shocking for him.
“This girl was standing with a group of friends and just walked over and screamed it right in my face.
“Her friends didn’t look that impressed – but none of them called her out. It’s very disheartening.
“While I thought I was ok at the time, when we got back to the flat I was really quite upset.
“I have a little sister who is just ten years old and I don’t want her to have to endure this sort of thing.”
Ben added: “We can use this experience to shine a light on this sort of thing and in my comments to the committee I was trying to emphasise that if we are to teach our young people to respect one another, we have to start by leading by example.”
Of the furore following Boris Johnson’s burqa comments, Mr Lawrie had told fellow councillors: “Even if his comments were made in jest, there have been real world consequences of making them.
“The lesson here is that as public figures, we have to be mindful of what we say and the language we use. Even the words that we don’t say seriously can have serious repercussions, putting other people’s safety in jeopardy.
“If we all take up the cause, racism is something we can stamp out together.”
