WALES – A bus passenger stepped in the defense of a niqabi Muslim passenger who was attacked verbally by a man asking her to speak English, saying that the woman indeed spoke Welsh, the native language of Wales.
The incident came to public after Tom Bradbury, 26 from Wales, wrote about it on his Facebook page, insisting that he was a first hand witness of the incident.
“The most perfect thing I have ever seen just happened on the replacement train bus service between Newport and Cwmbran [in South Wales]. White man sat in front of a mother and her son. Mother was wearing a niqab,” Bradbury wrote on Monday, June 20.
“After about 5 minutes of the mother talking to her son in another language the man, for whatever reason, feels the need to tell the woman: ‘When you’re in the UK you should really be speaking English.’
“At which point, an old woman in front of him turns around and says, “She’s in Wales. And she’s speaking Welsh. Perfect,” he added.
According to Bradbury, the woman was making her son, who was “about 4 or 5” laugh when the man rudely interrupted.
“I was surprised to hear someone come out and say something like that so directly,” he told Mirror Online.
“The woman’s response was almost immediate, though, and was just so perfect.
“It made the few of us in the surrounding seats laugh and the guy seemed to shrivel up a little bit and mumble something to himself, but stayed quiet afterwards,” he added.
The instigator, Bradbury continued, “seemed to shrivel up a little bit and mumble something to himself, but stayed quiet afterwards”.
One commenter who thought it was too good to be true asked: “Did you make this up?” before likening it to a similar story about a Walmart queue in the USA.
But Tom insisted it happened, adding: “I’m sure similar things have happened all over, ignorance like that tends to get called out.”
His post has received over 2,000 shares in just a few hours as people congratulate the female bus passenger for calling the man out on his rude comment.