A South Asian woman in London has said she was racially abused by a group of schoolchildren while travelling on a train earlier this month. Sophia Choudry, a 47-year-old entrepreneur, shared her ordeal in a LinkedIn post, describing how four children hurled racist slurs at her during her journey from Paddington to Maidenhead on September 7.
“I never thought I would hear this word again,” she wrote. “I was on my own, sitting in a group of four seats, headphones in, scrolling on my phone. Opposite me were four children. A few minutes into the journey, I heard shouting… they were shouting the word ‘p***’ over and over again. I couldn’t believe it. The laughter, the brazenness. I looked around to see if anyone else was as shocked as me, but nobody reacted. I knew I was on my own,” she recalled.
Choudry said she began filming the incident to have evidence. When she warned the children she would report them, they fled at the next stop. What shocked her most, she said, was the response of fellow passengers.
“One man asked why I was calling the police. I said, ‘Because they were racist,’ and he replied, ‘So what?’ Another told me, ‘They’re just kids,’ and even accused me of being a ‘child abuser’ for filming them,” she recalled. “To actively dismiss racism, to excuse it, to turn the blame onto me, left me feeling completely isolated and vilified.”
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Investigation underway
The entrepreneur said the slur had not been directed at her in 25 years, taking her back to her childhood in Sunderland, where she endured years of racism. “These are not just words. They carry pain, history, and trauma. And when we excuse them, we normalise them,” she wrote.
According to a report by the BBC, Choudry called the police before the youngsters left the train at Hayes and Harlington station. British Transport Police (BTP) later said officers did not meet her at the station because they were attending a crash. Initially, her case was closed due to a “lack of identifiable suspects,” but it was reopened after she submitted video evidence.
A BTP spokesperson said they “take a zero tolerance approach to hate crime” and urged witnesses to come forward. Transport for London (TfL) also apologised, saying it was “deeply sorry” and was investigating why Choudry did not receive the help she needed.
Entrepreneur Sophia Choudry says she was racially abused by children on London train: ‘Never thought I would hear this’
