Burka ban: A teenage French Muslim girl tried to
commit suicide after two men attacked her for wearing a veil on August
12 (file photo)
A teenage French Muslim girl, who was attacked by two men with a box cutter for wearing a veil, has tried to commit suicide.
The
16-year-old is reportedly in a critical condition in hospital after
jumping out a fourth storey window at her home in Trappes, Paris
yesterday.
While her
motives for suicide remain unclear, she is believed to have also
unsuccessfully tried to overdose on pills last week according to French
newspaper Le Parisien.
In
July, hundreds of Muslim protesters clashed with riot police in the
Parisian suburb after attempts were made to fine a woman for wearing a
full Islamic veil.
Since
the controversial burka ban which was introduced across France in 2011
there has been a string of violent incidents across the country.
Worried
that the girl’s suicide attempt might spark more riots, police were
stationed in the commuter town to the west of the French capital on
Monday night but no disorder unfolded.
The girl told police that on August
12 she was approached by two ‘European looking’ men with shaved heads
near Square Berlioz as she left a friend’s house at 5.45pm.
The
men allegedly shouted anti-Muslim and racist remarks at her before
wielding a box cutter. They ripped off her veil, pushed her over and hit
her.
She told The Huffington Post:
‘The first man started to touch my chest and then I managed to slap
him, but then he punched me in the chest. He then took out a sharp
object and started to cut my face with short, quick movements.’
Her
attackers fled in a car when another man intervened. Le Parisien
newspaper reported that she had ‘light scratch marks’ on her throat and
face.
Police in Yveslines
are currently investigating the attack and looking at CCTV footage but
are struggling because no eye witnesses to the attack have come forward.
It
is unclear whether the teenager was wearing a hijab (headscarf) or a
niqab (full face veil) which is now prohibited under the French burka
ban. Women found guilty of wearing veils which cover the face in public
can be fined the equivalent of £130 and be forced to attend citizenship
classes.
At the time of the girl's attack, the French
Interior Minister Manuel Valls said: ‘I severely condemn this newest
demonstration of anti-Muslim hatred and intolerance.’
During
the riots in Trappes in July, hundreds of people surrounded the police
headquarters in the area and bombarded officers with stones while also
they started fires and vandalised property.
A 14-year-old boy suffered a serious
eye injury in the violence, while four police were hurt on Saturday,
said local prosecutor Vincent Lesclous.
A
police source in Trappes said: ‘The disturbances are related to the
arrest of a man who objected to his wife being controlled for wearing a
veil.
‘He attacked officers and was then arrested. It is this which led to the protests outside the police headquarters in Trappes.’
A
21-year-old pregnant woman was also attacked by suspected vigilantes
for covering her face with a veil on the same council estate.
In March, a Frenchman who ripped a Muslim woman's veil off her eyes was given a five-month suspended prison sentence.
The 30-year-old said he was merely trying to 'enforce' his country's laws when he carried out the attack in the city of Nantes.
Controversial ban: The rioting in July started
after after police officers carried out an identity check on a
full-veiled woman and her husband
dailymail.co.uk
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