British Muslim university student says intercity bus driver racially abused her

In her Facebook post, the 20-year old lady, stated that she was absolutely disgusted with the treatment of National Express staff during travelling last week.

While sharing her experience, Yusra said on June 14, she along with her four friends were waiting in the coach station at Manchester for the 10:30 PM coach to Leeds.

“When the coach arrived we queued up as normal to have our tickets checked by the driver (Caroline), she was immediately quite rude her hostility towards us was felt on the onset as she analysed each of our tickets and coach cards very closely which is something we noticed she didn’t do to any of the other passengers”, she told.

Later after she was scanned, the driver aggressively asked if they had any hot food in their bags to which she replied “just cold lasagne and rice which was all tightly packed away and no smell.”

“She then shouted quite loudly that we were not allowed to eat on the coach and that “we had better not be taking ‘curry’ on to her coach”.

“I told her that we weren’t intending on eating on the coach but she continued shouting to us about stinking up her coach with curry,” wrote Yusra.

“We offered to give the takeaway food to the homeless outside and put the remainder of it in the luggage section but she kept banging on about our “smelly curry food”.

“By this time we had lost our patience with her, we weren’t carrying any curry or “smelly food” at all.

“She was obviously targeting us of her preconceived ideas about brown people, we were visibly Muslim so this made it easier for her.”

When Yusra complained that the driver was being racist, she says the driver exploded in rage and said the women were not allowed to travel on the coach.

But when a security guard came along to see what the fuss was about, Yusra says she and her friends were forced by him to apologise to the driver for calling her racist.

They then had to wait until the next coach which didn’t depart until two hours later.

Yusra said no apology was made by National Express and despite being told they would hear back from them within three days that they had received no contact.

Others have been turning to Twitter to show their support for Yusra and question National Express over it.

National Express said it was investigating the incident.

A spokesperson said: “We take reports of unacceptable behaviour very seriously are investigating the issues raised by this serious complaint as a matter of priority.”

Yusra has declared the incident as a baffling and humiliating experience.

“Shout out to all the bystanders who said nothing and acted like we were causing a scene”, she added.

“This wasn’t about our food this was about the principle and her racist and Islamophobic agenda”, claimed Yusra.

“I’ve heard quite a few stories about National Express and their poor treatment of minorities and women, something needs to change”, she wrote in her Facebook status.