"We realised that at a street-level Muslim women who were visible, and wore the Hijab or the headscarf, were suffering more targeted abuse," said Fiyaz Mughal, director of UK-based Tell Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks (MAMA), that monitors Islamophobic attacks.
"We also realised quite early on that women who wear Niqab, the face veil, suffered more aggressive incidents -- there was something about the face veil that in a way brought out the worst in the perpetrator," he added.
As many as 60 per cent of Islamophobia victims were women, the organisation claimed.
The news comes after a shocking video surfaced of an unprovoked violent attack on a hijab-wearing UK teenager, in which the victim was seen being punched in broad daylight while walking down the street.
Also Read
This also comes as latest Scotland Yard figures show that Islamophobic crimes against Muslims in London have gone up by 70 per cent over the past year.
Mughal pointed to the beheadings by ISIS in Iraq and Syria as well as the refugee crisis in Europe as being linked to the rise in Islamophobic attacks.
"Women suffer more incidents, and more aggressive incidents of hate," he told Al Arabiya News.
One reason behind this is the visibility of those women who chose to cover their heads and faces, Mughal said. For those perpetrating the attacks, face coverings "visualise 'the other' very clearly," he said.
But while women are more likely to attract the "hate and the venom" of racist attackers, they are far less likely to come forward and report incidents, said Mussurut Zia, general secretary of the Muslim Women's Network UK.
"I know of people who have had their hijabs pulled, who have been kicked, who have had their niqabs (veils) pulled off, people who have been assaulted, pushed and shoved and threatened with lighter fluid," she said.
The Metropolitan Police define 'Islamophobic' crime as any offence intended to affect those known or perceived to be Muslim.