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wo Indonesian Muslims studying in Canberra who wish to remain unnamed were just minding their own business as they strolled about in the heart of the Australian capital on a Thursday afternoon when two strangers started yelling at them.

An Australian woman and her male friend pointed fingers at them while slurring loud comments about the students’ hijabs.

“Why do you wear all black? Why are you even still alive? It isn’t fair to us,” said Welhelmus Poek, the Canberra chapter’s chairman of the Indonesian Students Association in Australia (PPIA), recounting the experience that was reported to him by one of the students last week.

The students, identified only as MT and AY, both of whom are pursuing master’s degrees at Australian universities in Canberra, immediately reported their experiences to the local police and the PPIA. The latter then reported the issue to the Indonesian Embassy in Canberra on Friday.

The embassy had acted “swiftly” and sent representatives to visit the victims, Welhelmus said over the weekend.

“They also sent a diplomatic notice to Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, urging it to investigate the case,” he said, adding that, while the authorities had yet to determine the motive of such harassment, there was a strong case to be made that it was racism.

An embassy official confirmed with The Jakarta Post on Sunday that it had sent the notice to the department, saying it would provide a response on Monday.

“We sent the notice so that authorities would pay attention to the issue at hand and conduct a proper investigation,” the spokesperson said, adding that the embassy’s police attaché had also pressured the local authorities to act.

The students had reportedly tried to ignore the verbal harassment until the woman attacked AY on the ear, sending her falling to her knee and causing a minor injury, Welhelmus said.

“They passed us and kept cursing. We were speechless as we were very shocked. A passerby only looked at us,” said MT in her WhatsApp chat with Welhelmus, which the Post had seen. “We were very disappointed,” she said in the message.

On Monday, the local PPIA chapter is slated to meet with the dean of the University of Canberra, where AY is a student, to call on the university to support the victim. Representatives of the student group previously met with officials from Australian National University, MT’s alma mater, which had expressed regret over the incident.

Occasionally, Indonesian students in Australia still experience discrimination based on their looks and expression of religion, despite efforts from both sides to foster a better understanding of religious and cultural differences. Australia itself has a small albeit growing Muslim minority of 500,000.

The world’s largest Muslim-majority country sends upwards of 17,000 students to Australia every year. (tjs)