Charles Luylier (in Montpellier) / Photo credits: PASCAL GUYOT / AFP 7:14 a.m., April 5, 2024
The attack on Samara, 14, in front of her college in Montpellier highlights not only her establishment but also the neighborhood in which it is located. La Paillade, a working-class neighborhood where living together can be complicated, as Europe 1 noted on site.
Three days after the beating of Samara, 14, in front of her college in Montpellier, an administrative investigation, carried out by the Ministry of National Education, begins this Friday. Two general inspectors will try to understand how such an outburst of violence could have been triggered. They will interview the educational body, the students, and will submit a report to the minister within eight days. A college located in the heart of La Paillade, a popular district of Montpellier. A place where questions related to living together and secularism are complicated.
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“They should wear the veil”
La Paillade, a district of 25,000 inhabitants, a few residential areas, many apartment blocks and a community life that is complicated to live with for Nathalie, a mother. "For secularism, I have the impression that it is complicated to live together here. There are tensions with adolescents, especially girls who are North African and Europeanized, they are frowned upon! They should wear the veil,” she says.
A difficult context which led to Marie's move.
"It's a lawless area. I wanted to go see my mother at La Paillade and at the beginning of the street, there were young people posted on the sidewalk, throwing beer bottles so that we wouldn't couldn't go back," she remembers. Since the attack in Samara, tensions have been reignited within the community itself. Samara's family, the Harkis, did not fail to demand a more republican practice of Islam.