Pregnant women targeted by racists

RACIST attacks on pregnant black women are on the increase in Dublin city centre, a support group for African women reported yesterday.

“I actually tried to hide my pregnancy - and yet I wanted to be proud of my child,” said Salome Mbugua of the African Women’s Network of her daily ordeal in Dublin two years ago.

“Because of what the media were saying at the time - that African women are getting pregnant to stay - I was attacked,” she told delegates to a conference on developing anti-racism awareness at local level. “I was a victim. I wasn’t a refugee at that time but I experienced the racism because of my colour every day, because of some of the stereotyping going on that every African person is a refugee or asylum seeker.”