Muslim Woman Assaulted and Subjected to Racist Abuse in French Town

The two women hurled racist insults at Aziza H. as she was going to her physiotherapist in Gardanne. Choice excerpts: "Look at the veiled woman parading," "She benefits from social assistance while we are dying of hunger," "We have to kill her like the Palestinians." Wounded in her self-esteem, the mother of the family says she "turned around to tell them they had no right to speak to me like that and they started running to catch up with me," she recounts to France 3 Provence-Alpes.

Fearing being attacked, the forty-year-old says she took a discreet passage. This is when she is caught up by the two women who started beating her. "They held me down to hit me. My veil and hair were torn off. They insulted me with ’dirty race’," details Aziza, claiming to have been strangled by the two women who threatened to kill her. "I heard them say ’we have to finish her off’."

The two women finally flee, after hearing a noise, which allowed Aziza to save her life and return home. Seriously injured, she is taken to the emergency room by a friend. Doctors find that the forty-year-old was suffering from a wrist hematoma, rib fractures, abrasions on the neck and legs, and signs of blows to the face. She is prescribed five days of ITT.

Psychologically, Aziza is traumatized. "I want to stay at home, but I have four children.