Parents shave French Muslim girl’s head over Christian partner

The police detained the parents and relatives who were later released under judicial control but are banned from contacting the girl, who has been placed under protection.

The parents, uncle and aunt of a teenager of Bosnian Muslim origin will face trial in France on charges of violence against a minor for shaving her head because of her relationship with a Christian Serbian boy, prosecutors said on Friday.

The girl, aged 17, had her hair shaven off and was also beaten in the eastern city of Besancon on Monday, judicial sources said. Police detained the parents as well as the uncle and the aunt. They were released under judicial control but are banned from contacting the girl, who has been placed under protection.

They will be tried later this year for “violence against minors”, said deputy prosecutor Margaret Parietti, confirming a report in the

Est Republicain daily. The girl, who arrived from Bosnia-Herzegovina two years ago with her family, had for several months had a relationship with the boy of Serbian origin, who lived in the same building in Besancon. “The two families knew each other and (their relationship) was not a problem, but when they started talking about marriage, the girl’s parents told her: ‘We are Muslims, you cannot marry a Christian’,” said Ms. Parietti.

Punishing the girl

The family took away her phone and stopped her contacting her boyfriend. The pair then fled for four days and on their return came to the apartment of the girl’s family along with the boy’s parents.

“The first blow came from the mother, then there was an outbreak of violence. She was taken to a room and beaten. She was shaved, according to her testimony, by her uncle — her father’s brother — while being beaten,” the prosecutor said.

She had previously had 60 cm of hair.

Head-shaving in this context has a particularly shocking context in France.

This was the punishment after the Second World War meted out to thousands of women who had relationships with Nazi occupiers in so-called ‘horizontal collaboration.’