birth_date: 1972-11-24 00:00:00
avg_rating: 3.8
name: Samira Bellil
about: Bellil was born to Algerian parents in Algiers, but her family migrated to France and settled in the Parisian suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis. Her father was jailed almost immediately and she was fostered by a family in Belgium 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 di Bellil was born to Algerian parents in Algiers, but her family migrated to France and settled in the Parisian suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis. Her father was jailed almost immediately and she was fostered by a family in Belgium 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 to prosecute her attackers. In the end, the gang members were sentenced to eight years in prison.Bellil's parents, who believed they were shamed by her presence, expelled her from her house. "People outside the community don't know," Bellil has written. "And everyone in the community knows, but they won't say anything."[citation needed]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 died on 7 September 2004 of stomach cancer in Paris. She was 31. ...more
death_date: 2004-09-07 00:00:00