“He took a photo with everyone except me. And I was the only veiled person. » For Bilqis, 18, the message is clear: the mayor of Francheville, a town located near Lyon, committed an “Islamophobic act”. Last Saturday, she was invited by the town hall, with her family, to a ceremony organized to congratulate young people who had obtained their baccalaureate with honors. But the young woman felt “humiliated”.
“I followed the protocol put in place to receive a letter with a gift inside,” confides the student to 20 minutes. Each student waited on the stage to take a photo with Mayor Michel Rantonnet. When my turn comes, I walk forward and see him look at me and then leave. I was surprised but I didn’t question it even though it was embarrassing. Above all, just when I left, he came back and ended up posing with all the other students. As luck would have it, I was the only veiled person in the group. »
The graduate, now at the university, specifies: “I had every right to wear the veil, I found out. It wasn’t a graduation. And even so, I’m no longer a high school student. »
A repeated humiliation
After this event, Bilqis finds his loved ones. His mother, installed in the stands, had captured everything on video, wishing to immortalize the scene which must have been “a moment of pride”. The family then decides to ask the city councilor for explanations.
“I wanted to know if it was really a coincidence or if it was deliberately an Islamophobic act,” continues the young woman. At first, the mayor’s deputies assured us that it was a combination of circumstances. They were embarrassed by the fait accompli, seeing the images, not knowing what to say. And when we finally found Michel Rantonnet, he looked at us and said: “I don’t want to talk with you or take a photo with you.” And he left. I felt humiliated. »
“When I went to see him, I wanted to get explanations, not a photo,” she insists. Instead, I was insulted a second time. » After experiencing “this contempt”, she decides to tell her story on social networks and thus, “denounce this discriminatory behavior” which “should never have taken place either at this ceremony or elsewhere”, especially “on the part of of an elected representative of the Republic”.
Michel Rantonnet does not “wish to comment on this matter”
“We have lived in Francheville since 2015, I worked hard to obtain my baccalaureate with honors. Why am I not seen as a student like the others?, she asks herself. I deserve the same treatment as my comrades. »
Relayed by the Collective against Islamophobia in Europe on X, the publication has already been viewed nearly two million times since Saturday. On her TikTok account, the young woman has nearly 84,000 views on this one video. “I simply want there to be justice and that in France, an Islamophobic act is not trivialized and without sanction,” she explains, considering filing a complaint. “The least we could do would be an apology, but would it be sincere? » During the last presidential election, the mayor of Francheville had provided his sponsorship to Éric Zemmour.
Requested by 20 minutes, Michel Rantonnet did not “wish to comment on this matter”, without denying or confirming the facts with which he is accused. “This is the behavior of a person, he is the only one to have slipped away at the time of the photo”, indicates to 20 minutes a source close to the town hall, assuring that the municipal team is not responsible for what happened, nor supportive. Since the publication of the video, the town hall has received “a lot of insults”, she concluded.