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DANIEL HERARD/EDITING
QUIET RAGE: A silent memorial for a 17-year-old burned to death in a Paris suburb
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| Sisters In Hell |
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Sexual assault is rampant in France's crumbling housing projects. Now
a gang-rape victim has broken the silence. Will society confront the crisis?
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By BRUCE CRUMLEY and ADAM SMITH/Paris |
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Posted Sunday, Nov. 24, 2002; 2.02 p.m.
GMT
Samira Bellil would have much preferred to live a quiet life
that didn't become the basis for a best-selling book. But
after years of psychological torment caused by repeated gang
rapes in one of the banlieues — the destitute public
housing projects that ring most French cities — she
penned Dans l'enfer des tournantes ("In the hell of the
tournantes"; the last word is a slang term for gang rape).
Published last month, the book has shocked France with its
graphic accounts of the attacks and Bellil's impassioned denunciation
of the increasing violence and sexual abuse committed against
young women in the banlieues. Since 1999, rapes within the
banlieue have increased by 15% to 20% every year. Dedicated
to the countless "sisters in this hell, so they'll know
there's a way out," Bellil shows precisely how and why
sex crimes are surging in the projects. "As children
of immigrants, we receive a strict upbringing and are judged
very harshly if we stray from it," says the Algerian-born
Bellil, 29, who was raised in a non-practicing Muslim household.
"From the moment a girl steps outside, guys think they
have the right to pass judgment and treat us differently.
In extreme cases, this leads to violence or aggression."
In Bellil's own case, it led to a horrific sequence of gang
rapes, in which she was brutalized in fetid apartments and
on the ground between filthy trash cans. When one attack was
over, her assailants offered Bellil compensation in the form
of breakfast and a 10-franc coin. Though the assaults occurred
in the late 1980s, Bellil didn't speak up or press charges
until three other girls attacked by the same gang appealed
to her. Bellil decided to write about the experience now to
call attention to the spate of banlieue gang rapes and the
perverse attitudes toward sex that feed the crimes.
Reports of sexual assaults against women have risen across
France, with court convictions for rape having soared by 61%
between 1995 to 2000. But specialists and victims' groups
say violence against women is especially acute in the banlieues
because of cultural attitudes toward women. Banlieue males
may adopt the lifestyles of other French youths — pop
music, fast cars and pornography — but they also frequently
embrace the traditional prejudices of their immigrant parents
when it comes to women: any neighborhood girl who smokes,
uses makeup or wears attractive clothes is a whore. Bellil's
attackers targeted her because she dressed as she pleased,
mixed with males and liked to dance — and had begun
a romance with another teen. Owing to the fact that most rapes
involve individuals known to victims, intimidation often suffices
to ensure that charges are never lodged. "Victims know
that they won't be protected by the police," says Bellil,
"and that both they and their families will be threatened
if they speak up."
The trauma of the assaults was compounded by the reaction
of Bellil's family, friends and neighbors, who said she'd
brought the attacks upon herself through her "loose behavior."
"Your reputation is important in the projects,"
Bellil writes. "It follows you everywhere. A girl can
be branded easy or a little slut even if she does nothing
wrong."
Another factor is the bleak prospects facing men from the
banlieues. Most are first-generation French, the sons of parents
who arrived in the 1950s and '60s from Tunisia, Algeria, Spain
and sub-Saharan Africa. Unemployment rates among these young
men range from 20% to 50%, versus 9% nationally, and the banlieusards
often feel shunned by mainstream French society. The location
of banlieues outside affluent cities enhances the sense of
alienation, and police are loath to patrol the areas for fear
of violence. The result: civility and order in many banlieues
have broken down, and bands of young men feel they can attack
women with impunity. "We've allowed large populations
of young people caught in economic and social limbo to create
a culture of violence," comments Malek Boutih, president
of SOS Racisme, France's leading civil-rights association.
"The women of the banlieue suffer the worst from that:
daily disrespect and aggression that all too often results
in sexual violence."
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