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Fatima Rahman, third from left, organized a self-defense class for Bay Area Muslim women after the election of Donald Trump. Rahman and other members of the class pictured here say Trump's campaign-season rhetoric created an unsafe environment for women and minorities in the U.S. Photo by Andrew Beale.

Muslim women practice self-defense following election

on December 14, 2016

President-elect Donald Trump is famous for his divisive, and some say hateful, rhetoric. During the campaign he called for a blanket ban on allowing Muslims into the country and proposed creating a national registry of Muslims. Prior to the campaign, he was recorded making “extremely lewd” comments about women and bragged about engaging in behavior that many commentators view as sexual assault. Following the tape’s release, dozens of women came forward to accuse him of sexual harassment and assault.

Trump’s speech, along with his actions, have made many people in the country feel unsafe, and a group of Muslim women in the Bay Area are organizing to do something about it: They are teaching themselves self-defense to fight back against a wave of hate crimes they say was unleashed by the Trump campaign. Click the audio piece below to hear about their efforts to protect themselves.

A Bay Area self-defense class caters to Muslim women fearing violence after that election.

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