The trial of a man accused of murdering a 15-year-old pregnant schoolgirl in France began on Monday at the court for minors in the department of Oise, just north of Paris.
Shaïna, the victim whose name has been changed, was murdered on Oct. 25, 2019. She was pregnant and had been a long-time sufferer of sexual abuse. She has become one of the symbols of violence against women, living in a neighborhood where rumors and injunctions against young women are even more prevalent than elsewhere.
After having been sexually assaulted in 2017 at the age of 13, had only just begun to overcome her trauma in 2019 and had been returning to a normal life when her charred body was found in a burned-out garden shed.
Shortly afterward, rumors began to swirl that the murderer was a man named Driss after local police in the commune of Creil received several anonymous calls denouncing the young man. A few days later, one of Driss’ friends spontaneously went to the police station to give evidence: Driss had confessed to him that he had killed Shaïna. The suspect had allegedly told his friend, “I smoked her.”
The friend explained that Driss had invited Shaïna to the garden shed with the intention of killing her and that he had hidden a kitchen knife, a pair of gloves, and a bottle of petrol in the shed. He wanted to kill Shaïna because she was pregnant with his child and he didn’t want to have a child with her.
Held in custody since his arrest, Driss is said to have bragged about the murder to two of his fellow inmates. His comments reveal the contempt he feels for Shaïna. When asked by a cellmate why he was in prison, he reportedly replied “proudly with a smile that he was there because he had killed his girlfriend, who was a whore he had impregnated, and that he didn’t want his mother to find out because he was a Muslim.”
He is quoted as saying that he would rather “get 30 years than be the father of a bastard, be the father of a son of a bitch.” At the start of his detention, he continued to rap from his cell, posting content on Instagram, as if nothing had happened.
Driss has maintained his innocence from the outset, “against all the evidence,” as Shaïna’s family lawyer points out.
When the Charlie Hebdo magazine investigated the case, other young women said they were afraid of suffering the same fate as Shaïna. Many of them live under the permanent control of certain boys’ gazes and the culture they represent, condemned to not being able to dress as they like and forced to practice absolute discretion if they have a boyfriend. Hovering over them is the fear of falling into the sexist category of “easy girl,” an expression that only exists for women.