Assault on Veiled Women in Montpellier Sparks Islamophobia Concerns

The (not yet authenticated) video of the assault on two veiled women has gone viral on Twitter on Tuesday. In this video, we see a man, wearing black pants and a red and black jacket, physically attacking two young veiled women. He is said to have tried to strangle one of them before grabbing her phone and throwing it to the ground. "We were on a bench, laughing, a man passes by and says ’this is really the dumbest religion in the world’. We get up to ask him what he said and he insults us ’bitch’, ’dirty race’ and when we start filming, he grabs one of our friends and strangles her," testifies one of the victims on the Decolonial News Twitter account.

Alerted, the police services went to the scene. Before their arrival, the alleged aggressor had already fled. No complaint has been filed by the victims so far, Midi Libre reports. Investigators are continuing their investigations to identify the perpetrator and determine whether it was an attack with an Islamophobic background.

Hugues Moutouh, prefect of Hérault, firmly condemned "this assault which will result in the necessary legal consequences". "Respect for the other is the cornerstone of our democratic society," he recalled.