[ad_1]
Aya Al-Umari was shopping with her mother Janna Ezat at the Farmers branch in Rangiora when she was confronted by an older couple in an incident captured on video.
Al-Umari described the incident on social media, writing that the problem started when the couple was at the makeup counter, speaking in Arabic.
“We were standing at the lipstick counter. Since we are in a pandemic, Mom does the sensible thing and tests lipstick * on her sanitized hand * and then applies it to her lips,” Al-Umari said.
Then they noticed a couple next to them, “They were looking up at us,” Al-Umari said.
He heard the woman tell her husband “you shouldn’t be doing that.”
Al-Umari asked the woman if she wanted to say something to them directly.
“She pretended not to listen to me and then said to her husband ‘Okay, it won’t be long before they leave our country.’
She then had to decide whether to ignore him or call the woman for her comments, Al-Umari said.
“I asked him what his problem was and he said that if we were in Europe they would fine us, which was weird because how else were we supposed to test it?
“Then he asked me if I was born and raised in New Zealand and decided to start recording.”
His brother, Hussein Al-Umari, 35, was killed in the Al Noor Mosque on March 15 last year.
“If it had happened before my brother’s death, I probably would have kept quiet, but the hatred is increasing, it needs to be stopped because we have seen what happens if it doesn’t.”
Al-Umari took to social media after the incident and told the story of what happened along with posting the video he took.
All the love and support they have received has not been replaced by hatred, he told the Herald.
“It’s been a bit overwhelming, we’ve gotten a lot of messages of support. It’s been really great to see.
“Restore your faith in humanity.”
A passerby in the store told the woman that she should be ashamed of herself.
“It was amazing to see other people yell at it too.”
Al-Umari said she was happy with the way Farmers staff handled the situation.
“They escorted the man out of the store and the woman opened it immediately after that.
“It’s like she’s in denial. Once they called her, she ran away.
She feels sorry for the woman “because of her ignorance,” Al-Umari said.
“I was more upset about how it would make my mom feel because I didn’t want her to be upset.
“Over the past year my personal stamina has skyrocketed and this was just one more thing we had to endure.”
Al-Umari said he would encourage anyone who is a bystander in a similar situation to “report him.”
A staff member at the Farmers store in Rangiora told the Herald they had been ordered not to comment to the media, but said the staff member seen in the video had done “an excellent job.”
A New Zealand police spokesman said they had not yet received a complaint about the incident.
[ad_2]
