Samira Bellil

Samira Bellil

My hero is Samira Bellil. This woman was born on 24th November 1972 in Alger. Her father was a worker and her mother was a cleaning woman. She lived in the suburbs of Paris. She had a very difficult childhood because her father was in jail until she was 5.

She was a teenager when she several times was confined and raped by several men. Only one of her rapists was sentenced to 8 years in jail. After that, she lived many years of suffering. She ran away several times, she knew the hell of drugs and alcohol. To escape from this distress she made a long psychotherapy which led her to happiness.

Then she wrote a book called “ Dans l’enfer des tournantes ” which was published in 2002. This was very successful and permitted people to know more about the violence against women, especially in the suburbs. In this book, she tells about her life, about her fights, about her disgust with the lack of Justice. She spared nobody and she took stock of 16 years of suffering.

After that, she was the godmother of the “ Marche des femmes contre les ghettos et pour l’égalité ” in 2003 organized by the association “ Ni putes ni soumises ”. She very much helped this association, managed by the militant Fadela Amara, in its fight against this type of violence.

Then she continued to do her job : teacher in suburbs. Unfortunately, she died on 4th September 2004, caused by stomach cancer, because of her several years of wandering. Samira Bellil is very important for me because she’s a woman of our time who has fought for her rights and for her honour, and for the rights of every human being, for the right to be respected even if you have a bad reputation. She’s the woman who said “ No ”.

She had a very difficult life : a lot of family problems, her rapes, her depressions ... She could have sunk into despair but instead of that, she decided to fight against her demons and to begin a new life. For me, she’s an example of courage and perseverance. When I read her book, I realized what are the problems in our society, especially in the suburbs and how it’s important to help people who live in this atmosphere. I have realized that you have to fight in your life and that you have to overcome ordeals. She gives everyone a lesson of courage and wisdom: she didn’t think anymore about vengeance. For me, she was like a phoenix: she revived from her ashes. She was really a hero ...