Nadine Osman

An 11-year-old girl wearing a headscarf was injured in a suspected Islamophobic attack by two teens in Saxony, Germany on December 8.

The suspected attackers, a 16-year-old male and 17-year-old female, targeted the Iraqi national in front of a supermarket in the town of Sebnitz, said Dresden police.

The female attacker first took off the Iraqi girl’s headscarf and pulled her by her hair to the ground. The male attacker then kicked the girl while the female attacker closed her mouth using her hand. The attackers reportedly shouted, “What are you doing here? Go back to your country.”

Police have launched an investigation into the suspected attackers. Germany has witnessed growing xenophobia and anti-migrant hatred in recent years, fueled by the propaganda of neo-Nazi groups and the far-right Islamophobic Alternative for Germany Party.

The police recorded more than 19,000 far-right crimes in 2018, with extremists committing some 1,000 violent attacks against foreigners, immigrants or political rivals. Almost 500 people were injured in attacks inspired by far-right ideologies.