The pressure and scrutiny on Muslims in New York since the Paris attacks “feels like 9/11 happened all over again,” she said.

“It feels like everybody’s staring like you’re on stage and you’re scared to do anything wrong,” she continued.

Ms. Osman, who was born and raised in the United States and wears a hijab, said she was attacked last Tuesday as she was en route from Hunter to her home in Huntington, on Long Island. She was talking on her phone when suddenly she felt a spray of saliva hit her. She said she heard someone yelling, “Go back home, you terrorist,” laced with a vulgarity.

Her attacker quickly melted into the crowd, and she was left stunned and bewildered. It had already been a rough day: She had been singled out three times by the police for bag checks while traveling on the subway system.

“I didn’t feel like a person anymore,” she said. “It’s like the hardest feeling in the world. You feel like you have no allies; you feel like you are alone. It’s a horrible feeling of isolation.” She did not report the episode because, she said, she did not want to relive the trauma and risk the possibility that it might be ignored.

Among other attacks in New York City, Sameya Omarkheil, 22, an Afghan-American student at St. Paul’s School of Nursing in Queens, said a man intentionally tripped her early last week as she was rushing to take an exam. The man then threw his cigarette butt near where she had fallen, ground it out with his shoe and said, “Go back to your country,” recalled Ms. Omarkheil, who was born and raised in New York and also wears a hijab.

“I was so scared on the inside, I couldn’t say anything back,” she said.

Ms. Omarkheil reported the episode to campus security but did not go to the police because she was in the middle of midterms and had no time. Once her exams were done, she said, she thought it was too late.