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GraceDK
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Last few days we have heard the politically incorrect Sarkozy saying tha burkas are not welcome in France. Now a Muslim politician joins him.
Amara was born to Algerian Kabyle parents in an emergency housing district of Clermont-Ferrand, Puy-de-Dôme, which she later described as a shanty-town. The neighbourhood was mostly populated by Muslim immigrants from the Maghreb.
Regarding the situation there for women she said, "daughters, sisters, cousins, female neighbours must either act like submissive but virtuous vassals, or be treated like cheap whores. Any sign of independence or femininity is viewed as a challenge and provocation.
Amara, at age 18, established the Association des femmes pour l’échange intercommunautaire (Women’s Association for Intercommunal Exchange), with the aim of developing women’s autonomy and individual thought through meetings between neighbouring communities.
After the 2002 murder of 17 year old Sohanne Benziane, she organised a march from the murder site beneath a banner declaring the women are Ni Putes, Ni Soumises (neither whores, nor submissives). She made a movement by the same name.
The movement fights against violence targeting women and it focuses on these areas:
Gang-rapes
Pressure to wear the hijab
Pressure to drop out of school
Pressure to marry early without being able to choose the husband.
NPNS was set up by a group of young French Muslim women, in response to the violence being directed at them in the suburbs (banlieues) and housing estates (cités) of cities such as Paris, Lyon and Toulouse, where rape and violence towards women have occurred at relatively high rates. Samira Bellil described in a CNN Interview a trial in Lille following the gang rape of a 13-year-old girl by 80 men.
The slogan used by the movement is meant both to shock and mobilise. Members particularly protest against changes of attitudes toward women, reputedly due to an increased influence of radical Islam in those French suburbs that are mostly inhabited by people of Maghreb and black African origin. A particular concern is the treatment of Muslim women, who may be pressured into wearing veils, leaving school, and marrying early. However, the movement represents women of all faiths and ethnic origins.]
No more moralising: our condition has worsened. The media and politics have done nothing, or very little, for us.
No more wretchedness. We are fed up with people speaking for us, with being treated with contempt.
No more justifications of our oppression in the name of the right to be different and of respect toward those who force us to bow our heads.
No more silence in public debates about violence, poverty and discrimination.
Two high-profile cases gave a particular impetus to NPNS during 2003. The first was that of Samira Bellil, who published a book called Dans l’enfer des tournantes (“In Gang Rape Hell”) in which she recounts her life as a girl under la loi des cités (the law of the housing estates) where she was gang raped on more than one occasion, the first time at age 13, afraid to speak out, and ultimately seen only as a sexual object, alienated and shunned by her family and some of her friends. The second case was that of 17-year-old Sohanne Benziane who was burned alive by an alleged small-time gang leader.
Amara was born to Algerian Kabyle parents in an emergency housing district of Clermont-Ferrand, Puy-de-Dôme, which she later described as a shanty-town. The neighbourhood was mostly populated by Muslim immigrants from the Maghreb.
Regarding the situation there for women she said, "daughters, sisters, cousins, female neighbours must either act like submissive but virtuous vassals, or be treated like cheap whores. Any sign of independence or femininity is viewed as a challenge and provocation.
Amara, at age 18, established the Association des femmes pour l’échange intercommunautaire (Women’s Association for Intercommunal Exchange), with the aim of developing women’s autonomy and individual thought through meetings between neighbouring communities.
After the 2002 murder of 17 year old Sohanne Benziane, she organised a march from the murder site beneath a banner declaring the women are Ni Putes, Ni Soumises (neither whores, nor submissives). She made a movement by the same name.
The movement fights against violence targeting women and it focuses on these areas:
Gang-rapes
Pressure to wear the hijab
Pressure to drop out of school
Pressure to marry early without being able to choose the husband.
NPNS was set up by a group of young French Muslim women, in response to the violence being directed at them in the suburbs (banlieues) and housing estates (cités) of cities such as Paris, Lyon and Toulouse, where rape and violence towards women have occurred at relatively high rates. Samira Bellil described in a CNN Interview a trial in Lille following the gang rape of a 13-year-old girl by 80 men.
The slogan used by the movement is meant both to shock and mobilise. Members particularly protest against changes of attitudes toward women, reputedly due to an increased influence of radical Islam in those French suburbs that are mostly inhabited by people of Maghreb and black African origin. A particular concern is the treatment of Muslim women, who may be pressured into wearing veils, leaving school, and marrying early. However, the movement represents women of all faiths and ethnic origins.]
No more moralising: our condition has worsened. The media and politics have done nothing, or very little, for us.
No more wretchedness. We are fed up with people speaking for us, with being treated with contempt.
No more justifications of our oppression in the name of the right to be different and of respect toward those who force us to bow our heads.
No more silence in public debates about violence, poverty and discrimination.
Two high-profile cases gave a particular impetus to NPNS during 2003. The first was that of Samira Bellil, who published a book called Dans l’enfer des tournantes (“In Gang Rape Hell”) in which she recounts her life as a girl under la loi des cités (the law of the housing estates) where she was gang raped on more than one occasion, the first time at age 13, afraid to speak out, and ultimately seen only as a sexual object, alienated and shunned by her family and some of her friends. The second case was that of 17-year-old Sohanne Benziane who was burned alive by an alleged small-time gang leader.
