SEXUAL harassers have been pulling the hijabs off Muslim women as part of a targeted pattern of abuse, MPs heard yesterday.

Parliament’s women and equalities committee heard expert evidence as it launched its first evidence session into sexual harassment of women and girls in public places.

Black feminist organisation Imkaan director Marai Larasi told MPs that gender, race, sexuality and disability must be taken into account if the government launches a campaign on what constitutes appropriate public interaction.

She said: “We have seen women have their hijabs pulled off. Women are being targeted in quite specific ways because of their social identity.

“It is important that we don’t think the same things are happening to every woman.

“They are being targeted in specific ways … some guys feel completely okay to do that based on their entitlement.”

Durham University researcher on sexual harassment in public places Dr Fiona Vera-Gray said that almost all girls and women have or will experience sexual harassment.

The statistic showing that 80 to 90 per cent of women have experienced sexual harassment is an “understatement,” she told MPs.

Many incidents go unreported because women and girls are taught to doubt themselves while bad behaviour is normalised.

Men and boys carrying out intimidation, public masturbating, flashing, harassment, sexually and racially charged insults “teaches women and girls to value the opinions of men on themselves,” she added.

Fleeting “daily interruptions” such as wolf-whistling and being told to “cheer up” also have lasting effects on self-worth, Ms Vera-Gray continued, because it teaches women and girls that agreeableness and appearance in public are more important than their feelings.

“Men and boys need to develop empathy and critique their own entitlement,” she told MPs.

She pointed to three studies, with one from 1984 showing that men and boys harassed women out of “boredom” and more recent ones showing that they do it to prove heterosexual masculinity and to exercise entitlement.

She added that “men will choose ambiguous spaces such as packed Tube carriages” where it would be difficult to ascertain if someone is deliberately getting too close.