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VIDEO: Meet the Muslim woman teaching others how to fight back

Requests for Zaineb Abdulla to teach self-defence increased after Trump was elected US president
Zaineb Abdulla teamed up with Chicago Mixed Martial Arts group to provide 'Hate Crime Survival Seminars' (Facebook)

Since the election of Donald Trump as president, hate crimes across America have risen to their highest since the 9/11 attacks

With Muslims bearing the brunt of US hate crimes, Zaineb "Zee" Abdulla has produced videos showing Muslim women who wear hijabs how to fight back if provoked. 

Abdulla teamed up with the Chicago Mixed Martial Arts group to provide "Hate Crime Survival Seminars," a place for Muslim women to learn how to defend themselves against verbal and physical attacks.

Providing a step-by-step guide of how to react if a hijab is pulled by an attacker, the videos posted on Zaineb's Facebook have since gone viral, with views at the time of writing standing at about 2.5 million. 

Speaking to MEE, she explained her initial motivation for taking up self-defence: "I’ve always been interested in self-defence, just because I’m a Muslim woman. I’m pretty small, I’m Iraqi-American, and I know that I’m a target in many ways."

While acknowledging that such hate crimes took place before the election, Abdulla describes the increase in demand for these classes as reports of attacks against Muslims have spiked since Trump's election. 

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