Dubai: Parents must be more vigilant amidst a notable spike in the use of veil and religious dress by criminals, a psychologist warned.
Brigadier Dr Rashid Bu Rasheed, director of CID, urged parents to be vigilant and avoid leaving their children alone to protect them from strangers and criminals.
The most recent example was the sexual assault and murder of an 11-year-old boy by a man wearing an abaya and niqab in Abu Dhabi earlier in June.
In a recent report aired by Abu Dhabi TV’s Oloum Al Dar (Nation News), the father of the boy, Azan Majid Janjua, spoke of his grief over the brutal murder of his son.
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He praised the efforts of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at Abu Dhabi Police who managed to arrest the killer within three days of the murder taking place.
The TV report was broadcast in the wake of the murder of Azan, who went missing on the fourth day of Ramadan, May 30.
His body was found the next day on the rooftop of the residential building where his family lives. He had been raped and strangled to death by a Pakistani man.
Series of incidents
The boy’s murder during Ramadan was one of a series of incidents where criminals disguised their identity behind the veil.
In 2015, police arrested a woman who concealed her face in a niqab while trying to hold up an Abu Dhabi currency exchange with a replica gun and a knife.
In 2014, Alaa Al Hashemi, dubbed the ‘Island ghost’, was dressed in an abaya and niqab when she murdered American schoolteacher Ibolya Ryan in the toilet of a mall in Abu Dhabi.
A series of terrorist attacks were also committed in Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia by women and men who were disguised in religious clothing.
Many robberies, crimes and terrorists attacks have been carried out by men wearing the veil in European countries.
Psychologist’s advice
Dr. Nadia Buhannad, founder and managing director at Sikologia Consultancy and Training, advised parents to raise their children’s awareness about such crimes to keep them away from dangers and maintain their safety.
She said those who commit such crimes are not psychiatric patients but inhuman individuals who have no morals and ethics. More importantly, Dr Buhannad also warned parents against sending their children to sleep at their relatives’ homes, as most sexual abuses are committed by close relatives and friends.
