BBC reporter:
Given all this fuss over the hijab, does wearing a headscarf affect how most people perceive Muslim women? Are they less likely to intervene to help a woman in distress who is wearing a headscarf? Failure to intervene isn't breaking the law, but is it morally wrong to do nothing?

Using actors, we faked incidents of abuse in the seaside town of Southend and secretly filmed people's responses. It's important to remember in all the following sequences, the passers-by may not intervene for a variety of reasons: they may misunderstand what they are seeing or hearing or they may not even have noticed it. And they may be concerned about their personal safety. It doesn't follow that they are in any way prejudiced or acting negligently or unlawfully.

Actor 1:
Here, nice tea towel, like the tea towel darling, very nice. Where did you get that? Top fashion or what?

Actor 2 :
I have one at home that matches that, yes.

Actor 1:
Look at her.

Actor 2:
It's a bin liner.

Actor 1:
Right - what's she hiding?
Look at those shoes she's got on?

BBC reporter:
One woman does step in.

Actor 1:
On the floor and start praying are we? Yes, give it all of that.

Actor 2:
Just a wee bit to win the bingo, yes.

Actor 1:
Oh what? We're just having a laugh.

(woman intervenes and says something)

Actor 1:
What? (laughter)

Actor 2:
How's your man - Yasser Arafat? (laughter)

Woman passer-by 1:
It's wicked. She looks vulnerable. She just looked vulnerable. And it wasn't about Blacks, it wasn't about Indians - it was about her and the way she dresses.

Actor 1:
Eeeeeee, tea towel head. Oh I like that - very nice tea towel - where did you get that from? (more jeering)

BBC reporter:
We test the situation again. This time the abuse carries on for several minutes, without interruption.

Actor 1:
Definitely guns, isn't it? You go around shooting people all day, popping them off.

Actor 2:
You fancy a bacon sandwich?

Actor 1:
Ha ha! That is bang out of order. I feel so sorry for you lot, I tell you, so sorry, that get-up you have got on.

Actor 2:
Salmon Rushdie, read any of his books?

Actor 1:
Salmon Rushdie! (laughter). Here, what is it? The Satanic Verses. (laughter).

BBC reporter:
Eventually the abusers just give up and go.

Actor 1:
Poetry in motion that book isn't it? Poetry in motion.

Man passer-by 1:
I seen someone was being harassed for begging. It's not any of my business, really, no. I just think the British public are the sort of people who stand back and accept things as they are. They accept they are told what to do and when to do it.
I would intervene if it got violent.

Actor 1:
Nice tea towel darling.

Actor 2:
Bit glamorous ain't you?

Actor 1:
It's the hand grenades ain't it?

(laughter)

BBC reporter:
On the next occasion it again looks as if the abusers will be allowed to carry on.

Actor 1:
Bloody terrorists they are.

Actor 2:
Fancy a bacon sandwich, love?

Actor 1:
Pork sandwich ain't it?

BBC reporter:
But this time someone finally does intervene.

Woman passer-by 2:
Come on, leave her alone.

Actor 1:
What? What? I mean look at the way she is dressed. Look at it. She is so different, I mean come on.

Woman passer-by 2:
I'm just saying, leave her alone.

Actor 2:
This is our country, you know what I mean.

Actor 1:
She doesn't have to go round looking like that.

Man passer-by 2:
It looked like someone was getting a bit of abuse. Racist, xenophobic, but ultimately true. I don't know, what they were saying. Should they ... should they be here?

Woman passer-by 2:
I actually thought that people were abusing somebody who was different to them. I intervened because I always think if you can speak up for other people who are experiencing that kind of harassment, it's important.

BBC reporter:
And further exercises also result in intervention.

Actor 1:
Don't you read his stuff? I tell you he's brilliant.

Male passer-by 3:
What do you think you're up to? Leave her alone. Go away, go away, leave her alone.

Actor 2:
Excuse me. I am speaking to her, all right?

Actor 1:
Yeah.

Male passer-by 3:
Just leave her alone.

BBC reporter:
At the end of the filming, the actors have mixed feelings about what they have seen.

Actor 2:
I did find that there should have been more attention. We really had to, you know, pull it out of people, really abuse the actresses.

Actor 1:
A lot of people first of all just said, you know, "Oh leave them alone, you are bullies", this sort of thing. But a couple of people did get quite aggressive at one point.

Actor 3:
The first lady that intervened was very upset herself and that felt, personally obviously, that felt very good, those people were actually not prepared to stand there and listen to this abuse.

(Extract from BBC programme 'Islamophobia' 18/08/2001)