Zoreh Assemi was born in Iran, moved to America, and became an American citizen. Now she owns the Givan Nail and Skin Center on Birchhill Road in Matinecock.
Saturday morning, two men attacked her as she was opening her shop.
"One of them was just beating me up with a stick, and the other one was cutting," she told WNBC-TV. The two men called her a "terrorist" and told her to "go back to your country."
The thugs damaged part of her salon, took some cash, and left.
She got patched up at a local hospital, but still had a mesh of cuts and bruises on her face, arms, and hands when WNBC-TV interviewed her.
"I'm in shock," Zoreh Assemi said. With an impressive display of understanding, she said she felt "terrorized ... not by American people, but by a very small group and prejudice. And it hurts."
I'll bet it hurts: physically and emotionally.
Between what Ms. Assemi said, and the anti-Muslim messages left by her attackers on a mirror in her shop, the Nassau County police are treating this as a "bias crime."
I hope that whoever did this is caught and treated to the greatest sanction available under American law.
This may be vindictve me, but I don't think so. One thing that America has going for it as a country is the way we've been able to attract the best and brightest from around the world, giving them opportunities to use their abilities.
Abusing people who enrich this country, in this case by providing nail care service for twenty years, hurts all of us.
Related posts, on tolerance, bigotry, racism, and hatred
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