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| Europe |
| Campaigner for Muslim women's rights in French suburbs dies |
| 2004-09-08 |
| Samira Bellil, a prominent campaigner for the rights of French Muslim women who gained fame with a book recounting gang rapes she suffered as a teenager, has died of stomach cancer, her publisher Editions Denoel said Wednesday. She was 31. Bellil's 2002 autobiographical narrative, ``Dans l'Enfer des Tournantes'' (In the Hell of Gang Rape), explores the violence she endured during her childhood in a tough Parisian suburb, from drugs to gang rapes at the age of 13. The book was the final step in her fight to regain a sense of self-worth having been rejected and abused for bringing charges against her aggressors and refusing to suffer silently, according to her publishing house. Born in Algeria, Bellil grew up in Seine-Saint-Denis outside Paris, a heavily immigrant region where gangs flourish. Bellil was active in the movement ``Ni Putes Ni Soumises'' (Neither Whores Nor Submissive), which fights for the rights of women in the suburbs, where men and the law of silence sometimes rule. The group campaigned in favor of a law implemented last week that bans girls from wearing Islamic head scarves in public schools. The group expressed its profound sorrow at her death and paid homage to her fighting spirit and generosity. ``All her life, Samira showed an unfailing readiness to fight in battling against the infamy of barbarous machoism and violence,'' the organization said in a statement. ``Her strength allowed numerous girls to resist to achieve their emancipation.'' The minister for victims' rights, Nicole Guedj, praised Bellil's courage. `The memory of her courage and the force with which she dared to denounce the reality of gang rapes will be with me in my willingness to fight the humiliations suffered by women who are the victims of sexual violence,'' Guedj said in a statement. Jean-Louis Borloo, minister for social cohesion, and Catherine Vautrin, deputy minister for integration, praised Bellil's commitment. |
| Posted by:TS(vice girl) |