Nasir Khan
2 Mar 2026
Gender-Based Violence and Faith-Based Harassment: Why Safety Requires Inclusive Accountability
At the Rail Unites for Inclusion tackling gender-based violence conference on 2 December 2026, one of the break-out groups focused on Accountability. Nasir Khan, Co-founder and Director of Muslims in Rail was in the accountability break-out at the gender-based violence conference and after that he wrote this article to share with Rail Unites for Inclusion.
We are sharing this at the start of Women’s history month to highlight shocking information about how some Muslim women are being treated including on our rail network. We want to work together to tackle historic and current unacceptable behaviour towards women.
Thank you, Nasir for sharing this article with us.
Introduction
Public transport is often considered in terms of engineering, timetabling and operational performance. Yet for many passengers, particularly women and visibly Muslim travellers, the most significant safety risks are human rather than technical. Harassment, intimidation and fear shape daily journeys far more than infrastructure failures.
As the sector works to address gender‑based violence, it must also ask a critical question: who remains unprotected? Evidence from the Muslim Census and Muslims in Rail CIC[1] shows that Muslim women experience disproportionately high levels of fear and harassment on public transport, revealing a gap in how safety and accountability are currently understood. For many, the issue is not the existence of policy but whether accountability is visible, trusted and effective.
In this context, accountability is not about assigning blame. It is about ownership, system design and consistent follow‑through. It concerns whether the rail system responds reliably when harm occurs, whether staff feel equipped to intervene and whether those affected believe that reporting will lead to meaningful action.
The Muslim Census × Muslims in Rail Study
The Muslim Census and Muslims in Rail CIC survey is the largest national study to date examining Muslim experiences on UK public transport. Conducted in November 2025, it gathered responses from 1,155 Muslims nationwide and provides a robust, representative dataset on lived experience. Its findings offer clear, evidence‑based insight into the scale and nature of safety challenges faced by Muslim passengers, particularly women.[2]
One respondent described being mocked with bomb noises while other passengers looked away. Another reported repeated tugging of her hijab on a crowded service, with no intervention. These are not isolated incidents; they represent consistent patterns.
A Disproportionate Impact on Muslim Women
The survey shows that 36.1% of Muslims feel unsafe on public transport, rising to 45.3% among Muslim women. In contrast, only 8% of women nationally report feeling unsafe when travelling. This disparity illustrates that safety concerns are not evenly shared across the population but shaped by intersecting factors such as gender, faith and visibility, creating a heightened sense of vulnerability for Muslim women.
The evidence makes clear that harassment is rarely experienced in a single dimension. For Muslim women, gender‑based violence and faith‑based harassment intersect, and campaigns that address sexual harassment while overlooking Islamophobia risk excluding those most affected.
Direct Experiences of Abuse and Harassment
Fear is grounded in lived experience. The study shows that 34.3% of Muslim women have personally faced Islamophobic or racist abuse while travelling, and 34.6% have witnessed similar incidents affecting others. These range from verbal harassment and religious slurs to physical assaults. Respondents reported hijabs being pulled, women being spat at, followed, surrounded by hostile groups, filmed without consent and mocked with terrorism‑related language. In the most extreme cases, women described being urinated on, struck with bottles or pursued through stations. Many identified visible expressions of faith, especially wearing a hijab, as a primary trigger for abuse.
How Fear Restricts Mobility
The impact of harassment extends far beyond individual incidents. Nearly 69.4% of Muslim women adjust their travel behaviour due to safety concerns, including avoiding certain routes or times, altering clothing, using private transport or reducing travel altogether. During periods of heightened political tension, such as far‑right demonstrations, 96.3% feel less safe and 90.7% change their travel plans. These behavioural shifts show how fear constrains access to work, education, healthcare and social participation, undermining the role of public transport as a foundation for social and economic inclusion.
Under-Reporting and the Collapse of Trust
Despite the prevalence and seriousness of these incidents, reporting rates remain very low. Only 12.5% of cases are formally reported, and among those who do come forward, 69% lack confidence that their complaint was taken seriously. This erosion of trust creates a cycle of silence that allows abuse to persist unchallenged. When victims believe that reporting will not result in meaningful action, accountability systems fail in practice, regardless of what policies may exist on paper.
Current Transport Responses: Progress with Limitations
Public transport authorities have taken meaningful steps to address gender‑based violence through campaigns focused on sexual harassment and active bystander intervention. Initiatives led by Transport for London and Transport for Greater Manchester mark important progress in recognising harassment as a safety issue. However, these campaigns rarely acknowledge religiously motivated abuse or Islamophobia. As a result, many Muslim women do not see their experiences reflected in safety messaging, limiting the overall effectiveness and inclusivity of these interventions.
Accountability Gaps
Safety initiatives that overlook faith‑based harassment provide only partial protection. Accountability must extend beyond gender to recognise how race, religion and visibility shape vulnerability. When Muslim women lack trust in reporting systems or feel excluded from safety campaigns, the system cannot operate equitably. Meaningful accountability requires transport organisations to acknowledge these disparities and respond to them directly.
What Accountability Should Look Like in Practice
To address these gaps, transport operators should expand safety frameworks to explicitly include faith‑based harassment alongside gender‑based violence. Reporting processes must be strengthened through clearer communication, greater transparency and visible follow‑up to rebuild trust. Frontline staff should receive training that equips them to recognise and respond effectively to Islamophobic incidents, not just general harassment. At the leadership level, faith‑related safety should be integrated into performance measures, governance structures and risk management, ensuring it is prioritised with the same seriousness as other safety risks.
The Role of Muslims in Rail and Community-Led Evidence
Muslims in Rail has been instrumental in bringing these issues to the forefront through rigorous, community‑led research. Their evidence base supports informed decision‑making and underscores the urgency of addressing faith‑based harassment on public transport. Collaboration with lived‑experience organisations remains essential to ensuring that policies are grounded in reality and capable of rebuilding trust.
Safety for All Requires Inclusive Accountability
Public transport is fundamental to social participation, yet it cannot fulfil this role when large groups of passengers feel unsafe or marginalised. Although progress has been made in addressing gender‑based violence, the experiences of Muslim women show that faith‑based harassment remains insufficiently tackled.
Transport organisations must recognise this gap, strengthen their safety frameworks and work collaboratively with affected communities. A system that excludes Muslim women from feeling safe is a system that remains incomplete.
The rail industry already understands the principles of safety culture: risks do not disappear because they are uncomfortable, and under‑reporting is itself a key indicator of systemic failure. The task now is to apply the same discipline to personal safety, dignity and inclusion.
The evidence is clear: Muslim women face disproportionate harm on public transport. Low reporting stems from low trust, and behaviour changes because the fear is real.
Accountability requires consistent use of data, attention to lived experience, simplified reporting routes, effective staff support and transparent outcomes. It demands moving beyond awareness campaigns to demonstrable action.
Public transport must be safe for everyone. Until Muslim women can travel without fear, accountability remains incomplete.
Nasir’s article has also been published in Rail Business Daily, view it here:
See this post on LinkedIn too:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7433266732624105472
[1] Muslims in Rail is a national network of professionals drawn from leading rail and transport organisations. Motivated by our faith, we are committed to connecting, growing and inspiring people working or seeking a career in the rail industry. MIR serves as a not-for-profit social enterprise. Further details available at www.muslimsinrail.org
[2] The full report can be read here: https://muslimcensus.co.uk/muslim-safety-on-public-transport