Scared to Wear Religious Attire and Travel Alone? #IllRideWithYou

After a gunman held people at gunpoint in December, 2014 in a café in Sydney Australia many non-Muslim citizens of Australia decided to reach out to their Muslim brothers and sisters all thanks to a story posted by Facebook user, Rachael Jacobs. Jacobs posted a story about meeting a woman on a train too scared to wear her hijab. Jacobs noticed the woman remove her hijab and said“Put it back on. I’ll walk with you.”. Jacobs stated that the woman began to cry and hugged her.

After seeing the heartfelt story, Twitter user, ‘Sir Tessa’, aka Tessa Kum tweeted: “If you reg take the #373 bus b/w Coogee/MartinPl, wear religious attire, & don’t feel safe alone: I’ll ride with you. @ Me for schedule,”. Moments later she tweeted “Maybe start a hashtag? What’s in #illridewithyou?”

What began as a simple message quickly escalated to gain countrywide support. Within two hours, 40,000 tweets of #IllRideWithYou flooded Twitter as people offered to meet Muslim citizens at train stations and ride with them. The message: if you’re scared to wear religious attire and travel alone, I’ll ride with you.