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Hindu woman wears crucifix
to escape attacks

Fakir Hassen in Johannesburg

A South African Indian Hindu working as an au pair in New York now wears a crucifix to avoid racial attacks, days after she unwittingly saved her own life and her employer's by oversleeping.

The Star daily reported here how Kamshana Singh, who has been working in New York for the past two months, was due to go to the World Trade Centre with her employer Deborah Dekoff on September 11, the day hijacked planes attacked it.

Dekoff is a former vice president managing futures at merchant bankers Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. She had to return to her WTC office for a final meeting that day.

"Her offices were exactly where the second plane hit the building as we watched it on television," said Singh. "The conference room was there in that corner. Eighty of her colleagues are still missing."

Singh said she had intended to go with Dekoff to the meeting, as she hadn't been to the WTC earlier. But she overslept, resulting in her and her boss missing their train to Manhattan.

"I was relieved that we didn't go, but it scared the life out of me," Singh said. She said she intended to remain in New York unless things deteriorated, but she was concerned about victimisation by Americans who were mistaking her Indian features to be that of an Arab or a Muslim.

Singh said screaming teenagers had accused her of being a 'Hindu fundamentalist.'

"They are so ignorant, they don't even know the difference between Muslims and Hindus," she said.

While walking home, a driver hurled abuses at her. When she went to report the incident at the police station, she was told that there had been many reports of Muslims being attacked.

Singh said the victimisation only eased after she started wearing a crucifix given to her by Dekoff. "I think I'm going to be wearing it for a while," she remarked.

"Muslim students at New York University are too scared to leave their residences. People here are very hostile and just want to lash out. Even if I was a Muslim, that doesn't mean that I support terrorism," she said.

Indo-Asian News Service

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