From National Public Radio
Asma Jama was out to dinner with her family at an Applebee’s in Coon Rapids, Minn., in October 2015, when a woman seated nearby starting getting angry. Why? Jama, who is Somali-American and Muslim, was speaking Swahili and wearing a hijab.
The woman, Jodie Bruchard-Risch, demanded that Jama speak English — and then smashed Jama in the face with a glass beer mug.
“I could see it from the doctor’s face that it was really bad,” says Jama, who is 39. “I had lacerations across my chest, all over my hands, and 17 total stitches.”
Bruchard-Risch pleaded guilty to felony assault charges, admitted she acted out of bias, and served time in jail for the assault crime.
After the trial ended, Jama found support from an unlikely source — her attacker’s sister.
Dawn Sahr, 50, contacted Jama online to see how Jama had been doing in the year since the incident occurred. The two met in person for the first time when they came to StoryCorps to talk about the attack.
“I wanted to reach out to you so much,” Sahr says. “I just wanted to know that you were OK. That was my biggest concern.”
“You know, they say blood’s thicker than water and you stand behind your family no matter what,” Sahr tells Jama. “Well, you’ve got to draw the line somewhere, and you’re my line.”
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