A man who allegedly slapped a foreign Muslim woman at a bus stop for not wearing a tudung has been nabbed.
Police detained the 30-year-old suspect for allegedly confronting a group of women at a bus stop at Taman Perwira, Bukit Mertajam, on Jan 6, and assaulting one of them for not wearing a headscarf.
The woman, a 24-year-old Indonesian woman who works at a factory in Seberang Perai, finally lodged a police report on the incident on Sunday.
Seberang Prai Tengah police chief Assistant Commissioner Nik Ros Azhan Nik Abdul Hamid said that the man was detained at about 10.30pm on Sunday near Jalan Taman Perwira.
The man admitted to berating the woman and her friends, as well as having “shoved the head” of the foreign worker for not wearing a headscarf.
“We have taken him to the Bukit Mertajam Hospital for health checks, before taking further action,” he said in a press statement on Monday.
A video of the incident recorded via Facebook Live by one of the eyewitnesses went viral on social media over the past week.
The Indonesian factory worker said she and her sister were waiting for a bus at Bukit Mertajam.
According to Bernama, the woman said a man, who looked “dishevelled and believed to be of unsound mind,” approached her and asked where she was going.
When the man verbally abused the woman, she allegedly told him that it was her choice whether or not to wear a headscarf.
She ignored his lecture, which apparently angered him, leading him to slap her.
The story was also picked up by UK tabloid Daily Mail, which described the incident as a sign of rising “religious conservatism” in Malaysia.
Meanwhile, the man’s family said he met with an accident 15 years ago and has been mentally unsound since then.
The case will be investigated for voluntarily causing hurt under Section 323 of the Penal Code, which carries a year’s jail, RM2,000 fine or both.
Earlier report: Jan 17, Viral Video of Man Slapping Woman Allegedly for Not Wearing Headscarf