A French woman has committed the world's first-known act of burqa rage after she attacked a Muslim woman and ripped off her veil in a store.
The 63-year-old retired schoolteacher is now facing three years in jail for the outburst, Britain's Daily Mail newspaper reported.
The woman, who has been identified only as Marlene in court papers, launched her attack at a furniture shop in a posh Paris suburb last February.
Marlene said she spotted the Muslim woman and immediately became outraged because she hates the full body- and face-covering garb and the discrimination against women that it symbolizes.
She admitted that at the sight of the burqa, she "lost control."
"I knew I would crack one day," said Marlene, who once taught in the Middle East.
"This whole burqa saga was really getting to me. To me, wearing a full veil is an attack on being a woman. As a woman, I felt attacked."
Marlene stormed up to the Muslim woman -- identified only as Shaika, 26, -- and, speaking in English, demanded that she remove the veil.
When the younger woman refused, Marlene decided to rip off the veil.
"I went over to her and tore off her veil," she said. "We came to blows. I was very upset."
As the pair struggled, Marlene allegedly slapped and hit the Muslim woman, and bit her hand. She eventually was able to rip Shaika's veil off.
She then shouted, "Now I can see your face!"
Security guards described the attack as "burqa rage."
A lawyer for Shaika, who hails from the United Arab Emirates, called it a "racist attack." The attorney, Lotfi Ouled Ben Hafsia, said Shaika was a three-year resident of Paris who now never wants to return because of the thrashing.
The February attack came just months before France initiated a nationwide ban on wearing face-covering veils such as burqas in public. The ban won final approval from a high court earlier this month, but is not supposed to be enforced until six months from now.
Although it was legal to wear the veil at the time of the "burqa rage" incident, people now can face fines and jail time for donning the garment.
Marlene, who claims that she didn't hit the woman, says she came by her hatred of Islamic Sharia law in the Middle East.
"I've taught in countries like Morocco and Saudi Arabia and know how these woman walk three paces behind their husbands," she said.
She will argue in court that she should be acquitted of assault because "we do not wear the burqa in my country.
"When I saw a burqa in a Paris shop, I thought it was very provocative," she added. "I just wanted to pull her burqa off. I know I shouldn't have gotten angry, but I lost it."
Source: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/shocking_attack_of_the_burqa_rager_qCm9h9OCof3iEgSQIMobEL
