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Veiled Muslim woman attacked in southern France

The Local France
The Local France - [email protected]
Veiled Muslim woman attacked in southern France
Photo: AFP

A young woman wearing a veil was attacked in Marseille on Wednesday by a man who reportedly called her a terrorist.

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The woman was leaving a metro station in the centre of the city when she was approached by a man who called her a terrorist, police said.
 
The man, who was in his 20s, then made a reference to the fact that she was wearing a hijab - a head covering worn by some Muslim women.
 
He then punched her in the neck and sliced her chest with what is thought to have been a box cutter, before fleeing the scene. 
 
The woman escaped serious injury and was prescribed two days off work.
 
Police said that other Islamophobic attacks have surfaced in the area after Islamic extremists killed 129 people in Paris on Friday, but did not go into detail. 
 
The city of Marseille also saw three attackers stabbing a Jewish school teacher in what investigators say was an anti-Semitic attack on Wednesday night. The assailants shouted support for Isis (Daesh) after the attack, reports say. 
 
French President Francois Hollande called on Thursday for a "merciless" response to both of the Marseille attacks. 
 
"We will not accept anything that would suggest that a single individual, a single citizen in our country could be attacked because of their religion confession," he added.  
 
Attacks on veiled women in France have made headlines already this year, most notably in March, when a headscarf-wearing Muslim woman in her final month of pregnancy was violently assaulted in Toulouse, southern France.
 
Christophe Borgel, the local MP of Haute-Garonne, was outraged after hearing of the attack and it was "without a doubt" motivated by racism and anti-Muslim sentiment.
 
"I was shocked to learn of this attack. This French woman of Muslim faith was attacked because she was wearing the traditional headscarf," said Borgel in a statement sent to The Local. 
 
France saw a similar incident in June, 2013, when a pregnant Muslim woman was attacked in the suburbs of Paris by two ‘skinheads’, allegedly for wearing an Islamic face veil. She later suffered a miscarriage, however it wasn't clear whether the loss of her baby was linked to the attack.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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