Bella Hadid has shared her support for an Otago schoolgirl who ended up in hospital with a concussion after three other pupils ripped her hijab off and beat her.
Hoda Al-Jamaa, 17, was sitting with her friends at Otago Girls' High School when three other girls asked them how to swear in Arabic and started taunting them.
The situation escalated and Hoda's hijab was ripped off and she was hit while others filmed her.
Hadid, a US supermodel, took to Instagram, saying the story made her angry and sick to her stomach.
"We need to change this mindset of immediate judgement. teach our friends, children, parents, families that wearing a hijab, being Muslim, or being anything other than white in general, does not equal being a threat or different than anyone else. Teach them to love before hate. To educate before judgement. To protect before bullying [sic].
"I am so sorry to the ones that have felt this kind of disrespect. You do not deserve it. Keep your faith. Love your God. Be you. And the ones who appreciate and love you for YOU are the only ones that matter. It's not you, it's them. Remember that. I love you," she wrote.
Hadid has 49.4 million followers on the social media platform.
Hoda has spoken out after the attack with RNZ reporting they tried to do the same to two of her other friends.
"My hijab ... is my culture and my religion. My hijab is everything for me and I love my hijab and those other girls love their hijabs."
Hoda said during the altercation, she was hit in the head so much she had to go to hospital for concussion, which now makes learning very hard, although she was very hesitant to go back to school, RNZ reported.
It was not the first violent attack she had been involved in and she frequently had the fingers pulled at her and called a terrorist by other students, she said.
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