A Turkish woman working as a police officer in Germany has filed a criminal complaint over alleged mobbing, sexual harassment and racist remarks she was subjected to in the workplace.

The 32-year-old, S.B., who wishes to remain anonymous, serves under the city police in Bad Homburg, a district town near Frankfurt.

"When I first started as an officer on March 15, 2021, I was really happy to have a job where I could help people," she told an Anadolu Agency (AA) reporter in an interview in Frankfurt as she opened up about the process that led her to eventually resort to the law.

"I was the only foreign member of our group and the others were people who had worked there for long years," S.B. recalled. "My colleagues constantly wanted to call it a day and frankly did not want to work. My active work and desire to do my job stood out a little at first."

In the following months, S.B. eventually learned a Turkish man had worked at the same station in the past but had quit due to mobbing. "They claimed that the person who worked there before was ‘a typical Turkish man’ and a ‘misogynist.’ I learned that he couldn’t stand the pressure and resigned," S.B. noted.

Her colleagues then began to turn their bullying on her, S.B. revealed. "Day after day, my job became harder and my health was negatively affected," she said.

"I’m constantly active in order to succeed in the workplace and my colleagues were bothered when my superiors praised me for it," she added.

S.B. continued: "One day, five of us, two women and three men, were on break at the office. I was braiding my hair from the front, since it’s long, and one of my male colleagues who worked there for a long time uttered an insult of sexual nature at me."

The same colleague later repeated the same type of behavior, the policewoman said. There were also times he made xenophobic comments, S.B. added.

"Another time, I dropped my pen while we were inspecting a vehicle and he made a sexual comment about me when I bent down to pick it up. He kept making these comments often. Somedays even my colleagues openly told me I had endured this type of treatment for far too long," she said.

S.B. went on to say that she told her bureau captain and worker representative about what happened to her but refrained from opening up to her family to avoid upsetting them.

She recalled another incident that occurred during an Eid holiday: "We received a report that said dozens of vehicles and people wearing black had gathered in front of a mosque for the Eid prayer. They asked me to go down to the mosque and have the vehicles towed. My colleague who came with me began shouting at people while they were praying to drive their vehicles away. The congregation objected to it so I called my captain and told him we had to show tolerance because it was a sacred day and because the road was closed anyway due to construction but my captain refused. We had an argument there. I was devastated that day," S.B. said.

She was frequently dispatched to deal with difficult cases like this and it was "psychologically exhausting," S.B. noted.

According to the Turkish woman, her colleagues also made racist remarks towards black people, foreigners and Muslims while on duty.

In one instance of anti-Semitism, she described a colleague who pretended to vomit when they saw a Jewish person wearing a kippah and said, "It’s not possible for you to still be here."

The harassment and the blatant racism began to take their toll on S.B. "I was psychologically exhausted in the face of these incidents. I began to feel bad in every way. At first, I tried to hide it but I cannot stand it anymore," she said.

S.B. first spoke to a family physician then consulted with her lawyer and decided to file a criminal complaint.

"My family doctor couldn’t handle my intense headaches and stomach pain and gave me a report," S.B. noted.

She initially applied to the anti-discrimination bureau at the Hessen police department but they merely gave her "advice." After the family doctor referred her to a psychologist, S.B. had dozens of reports issued. "Then my lawyer and I filed a criminal complaint about my colleague and the workplace at the Federal Labor Court," she reported.

The first hearing in S.B.’s case is set to take place today, on Nov. 11, at the Frankfurt Labor Court.

Islamophobia and racism on the rise

More so than winning the case, S.B. said she took the initiative in an effort to raise awareness about corporate racism and help carve a path for mobbing victims to make their voices heard.

Studies by human rights groups and independent reports highlight a stark surge in anti-Muslim hatred and xenophobia across Europe, particularly in western nations like France and Germany where the migrant Muslim population combined amounts to nearly 9 million people.

Germany, especially, has witnessed growing racism and Islamophobia in recent years, fueled by the propaganda of far-right groups and parties, which have exploited the refugee crisis and attempted to stoke fear of immigrants.

German authorities registered at least 662 Islamophobic hate crimes in 2021. More than 46 mosques were attacked between January and December last year and at least 17 people suffered injuries due to anti-Muslim violence.

The Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) vowed to take "concrete action" to fight anti-Muslim racism in Europe, yet, hate crimes and instances of racist harassment remain a growing threat across the continent.