Parisian tribute
The vote of the Paris Council was unanimous on June 7. On September 16, the Villemin garden, in the 10th arrondissement of Paris, will be renamed after Mahsa Jîna Amini. The 22-year-old Iranian died on the same date, three days after her arrest in Tehran by the morality police for violating the Islamic Republic’s dress code.
His death provoked an unprecedented protest movement in Iran. Paris had awarded, posthumously, honorary citizenship to the student of Kurdish origin, in October 2022. “We had to defend this aspiration for freedom for women and the Iranian people, explains Laurence Patrice, elected official for the 10th arrondissement in charge of memory and the fighting world. We wanted to pay tribute to him in a very important place for the Kurdish community. »
“Little Kabul”
Since 2002, when the Sangatte refugee reception center (Pas-de-Calais) was dismantled, the Villemin garden has become a meeting place for migrants, particularly Afghans. Located near the Gare du Nord, the “Little Kabul”, as it is nicknamed, is a base for many of them. This sunny Monday at the end of August, Afghan exiles are sitting on the benches in front of the basketball court but refuse to speak.
Yakou, a 29-year-old man, with a smile on his face, agrees to give himself up. He claims to be from Sudan and to have been in France for a little over a month. “Every day, it’s the same. I take a coffee. I come here, I go to look for work at Pôle emploi and I look for somewhere to sleep,” he explains in stammering Italian. Asylum seekers often occupied the premises with sleeping bags, before being evicted by the police.
Haven of greenery
Near the Gare de l’Est, right bank, the garden extends eastwards to the Saint-Martin canal. With its 20,000 square meters, it is the largest green space in the district. Chestnut trees, plane trees, oaks and other deciduous trees rub shoulders with flower beds and exotic decorative shrubs.
At the foot of a building, Le Poireau agile, a collective gardening place created in 2005 and managed by an association, is a haven of peace for pollinating insects and is home to hundreds of plant species. Its plots extend over 220 square meters. On the promenade, a motley population strolls. Alongside the migrants, Sunday sportsmen trot in the aisles, local residents read the newspaper, and strollers wait along the sandbox, while the little ones play with their shovel and bucket.
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