A Sydney mother has described how she was subjected to a vicious attack outside a busy suburban shopping centre, with a woman repeatedly shouting "you're so ugly" at her and demanding she remove her niqab.
The former child care worker and swim instructor, who has asked not to be named, said the woman yelled at her: "you should take that off", "I don't know what you look like", "you're not Australian" and "F*** off back to Lebanon".
The mother-of-four, 36, from Auburn, had just left Bankstown Central Shopping Centre on Friday afternoon when she noticed a woman staring at her, shaking her head and muttering.
"First thing she said to me was "take it off"," the woman said. "She was demanding that I take it off and because I wouldn't take it off that's when she lost it."
Terrified that she might be physically assaulted or have her niqab ripped off, the woman pulled out her mobile phone and started taking pictures and short video clips of her alleged attacker.
"She told everyone that she wouldn't stop and that everyone should be helping her out against me because of the way I am dressed," she said.
"I was very scared and I was so humiliated. I was in shock.
"To tell me to go back to my country. I was born here. I have never left Australia."
The woman said she was grateful to members of the public who stopped to support her. She also praised the work of police officers who she showed mobile phone footage to soon after the incident.
"They made me feel that something would be done. That it was serious and that they do actually care"
The woman said she had worn the niqab for about seven and a half years and had been subject to abuse several times, including a man who made barking noises at her out of his car window.
"I don't understand why for some people I'm public property and they can just walk up to me and say what they want."
Police said a woman, 60, was arrested on Friday afternoon and charged with behaving in an offensive manner in a public place.
The woman, Pauline Mary Field, was already on bail on previous charges including obstructing and hindering an ambulance officer, common assault and intimidating a police officer.
She was taken into custody but was granted conditional bail at Parramatta Local Court on Saturday morning. Ms Field is next due to appear at Bankstown Local Court on April 19.
Last year, an online video created by a Muslim woman detailing a self-defence technique called the "Hijab Grab" went viral.
The creator, Zaineb Abdulla, said she made the video after being contacted by Muslim women looking for strategies to defend themselves.