24-year-old, Chicago resident Zaineb Abdulla has become a viral sensation after posting a number of videos showing how to defend against 'hijab grabs' by bigots.
Zaineb is the vice-president of the organization Deaf Planet Soul, who organizes defense classes specifically for hijab wearers. The 24-year-old Hijabi, who has been described as 105 pounds and about five feet tall, she started the “hate crime survival seminar” after Donald Trump was elected as the next President which caused an increase in attacks towards Muslims and specifically Muslim women having their hijabs pulled.
She has released a segment of the basic self-defense class and has a shown ways in which Muslim women can defend against attackers, the self-defense is performed with her trainer, Miso Ceko of Chicago Mixed Martial Arts.
Zaineb is seen grabbing the forearm of her trainer, twisting it and using her body weight to push Miso to the floor, in a position which could break the arm of an attacker.
The video has received positive reviews and has gained more than 3.5 million views alongside 57,000 shares.
She told Washington Post, “I have a lot of messages from women saying they didn’t think it was possible to fight back,”. Her videos have garnered 75 requests for similar classes, from Muslim women in countries as far as the United Kingdom, Morocco and Nigeria.