Jo Cox, the UK Labour MP killed on Thursday right outside her constituency office, was working on a report about violence against Muslims, especially Muslim women, the Guardian reported today.
Working alongside the Islamophobia watchdog Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks, or Tell Mama, she was going to address parliament later this month about the findings of the report.
The study’s main conclusion was that there were about 80 percent more attacks against Muslims in the U.K. in 2015 than in the previous year.
“She met us to talk about how people could report attacks; particularly women in her constituency,” said the founder and director of Tell Mama, Fiyaz Mughal, to the Guardian Sunday.
“We were hoping she would highlight the impact on Muslim women; particularly given the targeting [that exists]. The majority [of incidents] at street level were [on] women and she was going to raise that,” Mughal continued.
Mughal added that while many attacks are never reported, Tell Mama expects to conclude that the U.K. saw 1,100 Islamophobic attacks in 2015.
Cox had also recorded a video that was to be used at the launch, in which she says she had discussions with Tell Mama’s staff on how best to tackle Islamophobia.
She also mentioned the situation in her constituency had gotten so bad that “many of our young women don’t feel safe when they’re out on the street”.