They were stories of hatred. One girl was playing in the yard with her sister, both wearing their hijabs, when a neighbor offered to take off their religious head coverings unprompted. A woman attending graduate school at Harvard said she was scared to leave her building because of discrimination on campus and in the city. One boy shared that his sister’s hijab was torn off while she was at school.
Massachusetts lawmakers heard these stories and more Tuesday as part of Muslim lobbying day at the State House. More than 100 people, including many school-aged kids, advocated for several bills that would protect Muslim Americans and immigrants alike. Notably, one that would create a permanent commission to study the issues facing Muslims in Massachusetts.
The push follows a recent report from the Massachusetts Council on American-Islamic Relations — the group that organized the lobbying day — that showed a 65 percent increase in reported hate crimes and harassment against Muslims in 2024, the highest recorded since the group started collecting data in 2017. The results, collected from 325 students across 11 counties, also indicated that 48 percent of Muslim students in state public schools were bullied because of their religion, and 35 percent of hijab-wearing girls experienced physical harassment.
Sumaira Afzal, a Muslim adviser at Simmons University, said she supports the bill because of the instances of discrimination she’s heard about in the city and state. There was no question, she said, as to whether those instances had gone up after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in 2023.
“It’s important for me to talk to my representatives and convey our concerns so we can make this state and community a safe space for everybody,” she said.
Attendees also lobbied for the Safe Communities Act, which would limit local police from cooperating with federal immigration authorities, and the Dress and Grooming Protections Bill, which protects Muslims from being “punished for how they dress.”
State Senator Jamie Eldridge and state Representative Vanna Howard, both Democrats, are the lead sponsors of the so-called Muslim Commission Bill. Eldridge said he introduced the bill because there is no commission to support Muslim civil rights, as there are for other minorities, including the Special Commission on Combatting Antisemitism.
“The truth is, Massachusetts has long benefited from the strength and contribution of its Muslim residents, but that hasn’t been matched by recognition in our state government,” Eldridge said.
The senator, who represents the Middlesex and Worcester district, said he’s heard “very challenging, very heartbreaking” stories about harassment faced by Muslim constituents.
“And we know that Islamophobia has only increased in the past few months, few years,” he said.
Attendees broke out into groups to lobby dozens of representatives throughout the day. One group was comprised of about 30 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders at Alhuda Academy in Worcester.
Accompanied by four teachers, they filed into the office of Senator Robyn Kennedy, a Democrat from Worcester, and detailed some of the challenges they faced, including bullying and harassment in their own neighborhoods.
Another group of three met with Democratic Representative Rob Consalvo’s legislative aid Emily Carrara. Kynza Khimani, who graduated Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2024, told Carrara many community members at the university experienced harassment for wearing hijabs, and she once came across people in Harvard Square yelling that “Islam is for terrorists.”
“The [commission] would establish a permanent body to study and respond to the issues facing Muslim communities in Massachusetts, like civil rights, education, and public safety, which is now, more than ever, really necessary for our communities,” Khimani told Carrara.
Legislators and their aides largely indicated support for the bill, lobbyists said.
Toward the end of the day, multiple advocates read out victim impact statements from people represented in court by the council. Others shared their own stories of harassment, including Aimen Tahir, a recent high school graduate.
Tahir said she was once “chased down the hall” in her freshman year of high school because someone wanted to “comment” on her hijab.
“Every year, I feel the heat of everyone’s faces upon me during the moment of silence for 9/11, as if I’m the perpetrator of criminal when I wasn’t even born at the time,” she said.
Fatuma Mohamed, the director of youth advocacy for the council, said the increase in harassment is a “systemic failure” and “growing crisis.”
“Muslim students across Massachusetts are being harassed, silenced, and left behind, without the structures in place to protect or support them,” she said.
Mohamed said the commission wouldn’t “fix everything overnight” but could be a tool to build systemic change.
“It will signal to Muslim students that their state sees them, values them, and is committed to protecting them,” she said.
Emily Spatz can be reached at emily.spatz@globe.com. Follow her on X @emilymspatz.