Valladolid. Sunny afternoon of September. Karima, Arantxa and another person met their children in the public pool of the neighborhood. They felt at ease in the field, dressed, as they watched the kids playing. Suddenly, the pool watchman approached them. “You can’t be dressed here. If you don't add clothes you should leave the pool. Otherwise, I'll call the police." There were more people in the camp dressed, but Karima and her partner were stealing stepdaughter. It was this clothing that bothered the caregiver.

The women, without tilting their heads, responded that they had called the police. Two Municipal Police officers approached Karima and his friend and requested the necessary documentation. Arantxa was not asked for anything. Karima described his attitude as a sexist and racist fact, while a municipal police officer said: “You’re in Spain, girl. If I told you what racism is...” he replied.

Karima and Arantxa did not silence. This is a statement that was published on the Facebook social network. The media released the news and met with the Sports Councilor. The councillor acknowledged that there is no regulation prohibiting the use of street clothes in the camps. But he didn't order any action against the police or the sentinel. The feminist coordinator in Valladolid showed no solidarity either to the unions or to the political parties surrounding it.

As part of Getxo’s “No to Rumors” strategy, I recently participated in a seminar on Islamophobia and Gender with Hajar Samadi of the Bidaya Association. I had just come back from Valladolid, and I counted that anecdote. Hajar had a thousand stories to tell. The hardest is the case of Marwa El-Sherbini, a woman of Egyptian origin who lived in the German city of Dresden. He denounced the verbal attacks and persecutions of a white man. In the same trial that same man stabbed El-Sherbini in 2009.

Hajarre reported that in Euskal Herria, women who wear scarves also tend to be discriminated against when seeking employment or housing. The very people who believe that the hijaba is the sign of the oppression of Muslim women, recognize the violations of the fundamental rights of Muslim women wearing their handkerchief. Legitimize violence by taking hate speech. Gender Islamophobia is xenophobic violence (although women are indigenous, because Islam is seen as something alien), but also sexist. “Society uses Muslim women as arrogant weapons against Islam,” explains Youtuber Ramia Chaoui in a video on the bans of Burkini.

Gender Islamophobia is associated with extreme right-wing groups, but in left-wing movements it also appears in smoother ways. Hajar Samadi analyzed hate speech and discrimination cases during his speech, but the first person who spoke in the conversation, a white man, reproached him for telling the story of the prophet Muhammad in two minutes: “I don’t like holy books or saints.” Subsequently, another target claimed the need to make visible immigrants and Atheist refugees. From there, we did not delve into the strategies against Islamophobia; the compatibility between Islam and the secular State was discussed, always from our ethnocentric perspective.

I remember the words of Brigitte Vasallo: “If when we talk about Islamophobic attacks we lose ourselves in discussions, instead of doing so for those affected, we become part of the attack.”