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LONDON, Ont. — What started as a hunt for cheese and berries at a grocery store left a 25-year-old Muslim mother with a black eye, chipped teeth and heightened fear for the safety of women who wear hijabs.

“I do worry about the safety of all Muslim women who wear hijab,” the woman, who did not want to be identified, said Wednesday.

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“Before I thought it was just a statistic that I would see happen to people, but now I know it’s real and it happened to me.”

Police in London, Ont., said Wednesday a 38-year-old woman was arrested late Tuesday and charged with assault.

The Muslim woman is on maternity leave from her job as a pharmacy technician. She said she was punched, spat upon and had her hijab pulled.

She was shopping Monday at about 5 p.m. when she noticed a woman glaring at her and mumbling in a foreign language. She said she asked the woman what her problem was.

I am from here, I am Canadian, you can’t tell me to go home (because) this is my country, too.

The woman then approached the victim, who was tending to her four-month-old in a stroller. As five bystanders looked on, the woman cussed loudly in English, the victim said, then spat at her.