Samira Bellil (24 November 1972 – 4 September 2004) was a French feminist activist and a campaigner for the rights of girls and women. Bellil became famous in France with the publication of her

autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English p ...

book '' Dans l'enfer des tournantes'' ('In the hell of the "tournantes" (gang-rapes)) in 2002. The book discusses the violence she and other young women endured in the predominantly North African and Arab immigrant outskirts of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

, where she was repeatedly gang-raped as a teenager by gangs led by people she knew, and then abandoned by her family and friends. The book is available in English (translated by Lucy R. McNair) as ''To Hell and Back: The Life of Samira Bellil''.

Life

Bellil was born to

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n parents in Algiers, but her family migrated to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

and settled in the

ian suburb of

Val-d'Oise Val-d'Oise (, "Vale of the Oise") is a department in the Île-de-France region, Northern France. It was created in 1968 following the split of the Seine-et-Oise department. In 2019, Val-d'Oise had a population of 1,249,674.< ...

. Her father was jailed almost immediately for murder and she was fostered by a family in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

for five years, before being called back to her parents. As a teenager Bellil rebelled against the traditional constraints of her community and wanted to live freely as a young French woman. Samira was first gang-raped when she was 14, by a gang led by someone she knew. They beat her viciously and raped her all night. A month later, one of the most violent attackers in the gang followed her and dragged her off a train by her hair, while other passengers looked the other way. She was then brutally raped by him again. She did not report her rapes until two friends told her that the same gang had sexually assaulted them too. Samira decided to appeal to the

French legal system The Law of France refers to the legal system in the French Republic, which is a civil law legal system primarily based on legal codes and statutes, with case law also playing an important role. The most influential of the French legal codes is t ...

to prosecute her attackers. In the end, the ring leader of the gang was sentenced to eight years in prison. Bellil's parents, who believed they were shamed by her presence, expelled her from her house as she did not practice 'modesty' and chose not to veil herself with a hijab.The Guardian, Obituary
"People outside the community don't know," Bellil has written. "And everyone in the community knows, but they won't say anything." Eventually, she found a psychologist who helped her. She had years of therapy, and describes how she decided to write her book to show other young women gang-rape victims that there was a way out. "It's long and it's difficult, but it's possible," she wrote in the dedication - to "my sisters in trouble". She used her real name and put her photo on the cover. She dedicated the book to her "girlfriends, so that they realize that one can overcome the traumatic" and to Boris Cyrulnik, her therapist. Her experience shocked

and forced the government to look into the issue. She later became a youth worker. She died on 4 September 2004 of

stomach cancer Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a cancer that develops from the Gastric mucosa, lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a number of subtypes, including gastric adenoca ...

. She was 31.

''Ni Putes Ni Soumises''

Bellil helped found a young women's activist group called

Ni Putes Ni Soumises Ni Putes Ni Soumises (which roughly translates as ''Neither Whores nor Submissives'') is a French feminist movement, founded in 2002, which has secured the recognition of the French press and the National Assembly of France. It is generally de ...

("Neither whores nor submissives") which has publicly addressed the issue of violence against young women in France. The group drew the attention of the French and European press as they organized marches and press conferences to bring attention to the tragic events happening to young women in the banlieue of France. She denounced the gang-rapes (known as ''tournantes'', or "pass-arounds") and described how she overcame both her traumatic experiences and the need for revenge.

Legacy

She was chosen as one of the new

Marianne Marianne () has been the national personification of the France, French Republic since the French Revolution, as a personification of Liberté, égalité, fraternité, liberty, equality, fraternity and reason, as well as a portrayal of the Liber ...

s, the new faces of France. Her portrait hangs outside the French National Assembly. In 2005 a French school in l’Île-Saint-Denis was named in her honor
Ecole Samira Bellil

References

External links

CBS News: Article on Samira Bellil

BBC News: France in shock over gang rape

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20051123230346/http://www.mariebrenner.com/articles/daughters/daughters.html Vanity Fair: Daughters of France, Daughters of Allah
Newsweek: Sexism in the cités

Studies on the Phenomena of Tournantes

"Tournantes : un phénomène international" French study on the tournante phenomenon in several countries, zipped pdf file

'No surprise' over group rape findings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellil, Samira 1972 births 2004 deaths Algerian emigrants to France Deaths from stomach cancer French activists French women activists People from Algiers French women's rights activists Algerian women writers Algerian writers Deaths from cancer in France Sexual abuse victim advocates Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery Gang rape in Europe Violence against women in France 20th-century French women