Kurdish hairdresser seriously injured by a Turkish client “because he listened to Kurdish music”
A 40-year-old French citizen of Turkish origin on Tuesday was taken into custody by the police after having injured with scissors on Sunday a hairdresser of Kurdish origin, during a dispute linked to the broadcasting of Kurdish music in the town of Roubaix in Northern France, French newspaper Parisien reported.
According to the first elements of the investigation, the altercation began in the hairdressing salon and continued outside between the Kurdish hairdresser and the Turkish client who was “annoyed” by the Kurdish music played in the shop.
“A dispute took place Sunday, December 25 afternoon in Roubaix in a hairdressing salon between a client and a hairdresser, victim of a wound in the chest, the vital prognosis of which is no longer engaged”, indicated the prosecutor of Lille. The 47-year-old client, slightly injured, was taken into custody for "attempted homicide".
The investigation, entrusted to the judicial police, "is underway in order to determine very exactly the circumstances of the facts", added the prosecutor.
A source close to the investigation told Parisien that the vital prognosis could be lifted after a surgical operation of this 27 year-old hairdresser, who was injured several times with scissors by the client.
The man in custody is already known to the police, while the victim is not, the source said. The news of the attack, which occurred after a French pensioner took action who killed three Kurds on Friday in Paris, was relayed on social networks within the Kurdish community and sparked protests.
A hundred people took part in a demonstration in the center of Lille on Tuesday afternoon at the call of Kurdish organizations after this attack and the assassinations in Paris.
#lille Début de la manifestation de membres de la communauté kurde en soutien à la victime poignardée à coups de ciseaux dimanche à Roubaix. Pour dénoncer un crime politique derrière ce geste ainsi que derrière le meurtre de 3 personnes à Paris le 23 décembre dernier.#Kurdes pic.twitter.com/2O2O8MIcj1
— Lille (@IciLille) December 27, 2022
“If in France we cannot listen to Kurdish music, where can we do it?” asked one of the demonstrators, Vénus Sedek, a law student, born in France to an Iraqi Kurdish family.
An official of the Franco-Kurdish cultural association Mesopotamia, who did not want to give his name, lamented: "on French territory, we are watched but not protected".
