10 People Who Were Attacked for the Clothes They Wore

Black clothing. A sweatshirt. A “too small” skirt. A “blasphemous” dress. A crop top. Pretentious attire. Hats. A bikini. Jeans. Zoot suits. These clothes outraged some, who associated the articles of clothing with devil worship, immorality, nontraditional attire, and beliefs, attitudes, or behaviors that outraged the spectators.

The attacks weren’t really about the victims’ clothing. As this list indicates, the aggression and violence seen were, instead, about maintaining privilege, political differences, oppression, crimes, and, in most cases, above all, hatred and intolerance.

Related: Ten Frightening and Lethal Hamster Attacks

10 Carlos Vazquez Galvez

As Carlos Vazquez Galvez and Emileigh Ortiz, both 16, walked along Devonshire Road in Lower Paxton, Pennsylvania, Christa Witherspoon-Connor, apparently triggered by their black clothing, which she saw as “devil’s robes” worn by “Satan worshipers,” attacked Vasquez Galvez with the sharp end of a horn she’d retrieved from her house.

As reported on January 28, 2025, the assault resulted in the dislocation of his jaw, stab wounds, and other injuries, as well as emotional trauma. Charged with ethnic intimidation, aggravated assault, and other crimes, Witherspoon-Connor awaits trial. Ironically, Vasquez Galvez said that he follows Jesus.^[1]

9 Waseem Zahran and Wife

Taking umbrage at a sweatshirt that Waseem Zahran was wearing in November 2024, Alexandra Szustakiewicz exchanged words with him in the Panera Bread restaurant in Downer’s Grove, Illinois, before slapping him and then tossing coffee on him and his pregnant wife. Her motive? She didn’t approve of his “Palestine-themed hoodie.”

None of the customers came to the couple’s assistance. After the incident, Zahran received threats on his life and expressions of hope that his baby would die and that his wife would be deported. Szustakiewicz had left the scene by the time police responded.

A follow-up report states that the attacker was charged with two felony hate crimes and one count of misdemeanor disorderly conduct. No trial has been held as of yet.^[2]

8 Kenyan Woman

Kenyan women took issue with a video showing a group of men who attacked a woman, removing her clothing as they complained that her skirt was “too small.” The men, the protesters said, should be arrested.

One of the leaders of the November 17, 2024, “My Dress, My Choice” protests pointed out that the incident was one of “at least” 10 others that had occurred in Mombasa and the nation’s highlands. The women’s protest, an organizer said, was not about the clothing women chose to wear but about their liberation from oppression.

Although the protesters found support, they also encountered detractors. Some women believed that “wearing miniskirts was the devil’s work” and that women should dress conservatively, covering more, not less, of their bodies.

Following the protest, police arrested 90 men suspected of stripping a woman in public, who was afterward transported to a hospital for treatment. The nation’s parliament denounced the attackers, Cecily Mbarire demanding to know “who defines decent dressing” and reminding the public that the attacked women were “wives, sisters, [and] aunties.”^[3]

7 Pakistani Woman

During another incident, also in November 2024, a man in a mob numbering in the hundreds demanded that a Pakistani woman remove her dress; if she refused, he said, the garment would be removed by force. The dress was seen as “blasphemous” since it was decorated with verses from the Quran.

Police intervened, escorting her to safety before questioning her at a police station. Later, religious scholars determined that the dress’s text was Arabic calligraphy, spelling “Halwa” or “Beautiful,” not verses from the Quran.^[4]

6 Jigarbhai Kanubhai Shekhaliya

A bizarre incident in Mota village in Palanpur, India, could have cost 21-year-old Jigarbhai Kanubhai Shekhaliya his life and injured or killed his mother, Sitaben, and his brother, Bhupatbhai.

Angered by Jigarbhai’s attire and sunglasses, which he saw as pretentious because, in his eyes, such attire was above Jigarbhai’s station or caste, Dhursinh Cheharsinh Rajput made abusive remarks about Jigarbhai’s social status, saying that he was “flying too high,” before threatening to kill him. Later, the same day, Dhursinh and six other “upper caste Raiput community members” attacked Jigarbhai with sticks.

One of the victim’s friends, who was with him, notified Jigarbhai’s family. When Sitaben and Bhupatbhai came to his aid, they also were attacked. More of Jigarbhai’s family also arrived, rescuing Jigarbhai, his mother, and his brother. Both Jigarbhai and Sitaben were admitted to the local hospital.

Arrested, the attackers were charged with multiple offenses, including rioting and voluntarily causing hurt.^[5]

5 Gunnar Johnansson, Haley Maddox, and Others

Although the FBI’s statistics don’t indicate the prevalence of hate crimes against supporters of President Donald Trump, Brian Levin, the director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, notes an increase in such offenses and fears that such crimes are likely to increase still more.

Newsweek’s report on these incidents indicates how dangerous such crimes can be. While shopping at a Sam’s Club store, James Phillips “allegedly pointed a Glock 47 at Terry Price’s face,” threatening to kill him, before being arrested on a charge of wanton endangerment.

A woman and her friends, who’d worn MAGA hats to a bar in support of Texas Independence Week, were twice attacked, once by a bartender. The local police, the woman said, seemed to “insinuate” that such attacks should be expected.

While wearing a MAGA hat, Nick Sandmann was falsely accused of making racist comments to a Native American activist at a rally in Washington, D.C., which resulted in his receipt of a multitude of death threats before more inclusive video footage showed that he was innocent. Major media outlets, including the Washington Post, CNN, and NBC, later settled out of court with Sandmann.^[6]

4 Cecilia Jastrzembska

The South China Morning Post’s online magazine headline “Maldives incident shows bikini is not always appropriate holiday attire,” draws a moral from the story of the UK’s reality TV star Cecelia Jastrzembska’s arrest there on a charge of indecent exposure. In fact, as the article points out, such bathing attire, like men’s swimming trunks, is prohibited in the Maldives, except in the island country’s resorts.

A video of Jastrzembska’s arrest suggests she didn’t take the matter lightly. “You are sexually assaulting me!” she maintained when Maafushi police officers attempted to take her into custody. She was later released without being charged, and the police commissioner admitted that the matter was not handled well and apologized to Jastrzembska and the public. However, as reporter Mercedes Hutton writes, in this Muslim country, “as [the celebrity] learned the hard way, swimwear is most certainly not streetwear.”^[7]

3 Neha Paswan

A gang didn’t kill 17-year-old Neha Paswan, nor a racist, nor a person who opposed a politician’s views, nor a stranger; her own family allegedly murdered her in July 2021 for, of all things, wearing jeans. Her uncles and her grandfather beat her to death using sticks. In-laws said they’d take Paswan to the hospital, agreeing that her mother, Shakuntala Devi, could ride along. Devi became suspicious when they refused to allow her to accompany them and her daughter. Seeking to locate the teen, Devi’s family was unsuccessful.

The following morning, they heard of a girl’s body hanging from a Gandak River bridge. It was that of Paswan. Police arrested her grandparents, an uncle, and the autorickshaw driver they’d called, supposedly to take Paswan to the hospital. Apparently, the case remains open, as there have been no reports of trials, convictions, or sentences in the case.^[8]

2 Mexican-American Youths

As the 2002 documentary film Zoot Suit Riots indicates, in 1942, gang warfare in Los Angeles escalated after a Mexican-American gang killed military recruit Jose Diaz. Police reacted quickly, arresting 600 within 48 hours, of whom 17 were convicted and sentenced to San Quentin prison.

Rioting between gang members confirmed locals’ fears of out-of-control crimes. The youths’ zoot suits made them outcasts in the larger white community, and they were targeted for violence by military personnel, for arrest by police, and for criticism by the press and politicians.

Communists and intellectuals organized a support group endorsed by Hollywood stars, including Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles. In 1944, in the face of long-term riots, the 17 imprisoned youths and girls were released following a successful appeal.

Later, Lorena Encinas admitted that her brother Louie, who committed suicide years afterward, had been involved in Diaz’s murder. Leyvas had not killed Diaz.

An investigation found that racism had been a factor in the trial, but the mayor blamed juvenile delinquency.^[9]

1 Joshua Woods

Joshua Woods, 22, wanted a pair of Air Jordan sneakers, but his killers wanted them more. Enough, in fact, to steal them from him and, as it turned out, kill him. A jury found that, in December 2012, Deron Taylor, then 16, and Neal Bland, 18 at the time, killed Woods when he drove off during their attempt to rob him of his shoes.

Although prosecutors said Taylor fired four shots, Bland’s bullet killed their victim. Due to his youth at the time he’d committed the crime, Taylor was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 40 years. Bland was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

A report states that 14 bullets were fired into Woods’s car, one to his head causing him to crash, and indicates that two other teens were also due to be tried for Woods’s murder.

Alerted by Woods’s friend, who was with him at the time of the robbery, his mother rushed to the scene. She tried to pull her son from his wrecked car, afraid that a damaged gas line might explode, but she found Woods sitting “slumped, shot, and unresponsive.” In a 2016 plea deal, Anthony Quinn Wade was sentenced to 40 years in prison for aggravated robbery, and the same year, Kegan Arrington received a 25-year prison sentence for the same crime.^[10]