While justice has just condemned eleven people who are among the cyber-stalkers of young Mila, several feminist associations have been summoned, since 2020, to support her.
“I have been threatened with rape and death since I was 16 for having publicly, they say, insulted Islam” writes Mila, now 18 years old, in her testimony book I am the price of your freedom, published since June 23, 2021 published by Grasset.
As a reminder, in January 2020, following insults received online, she stated in a video: “Your religion is shit, your God, I put a finger in his asshole.” Polemical remarks, of course, but which fall within the scope of freedom of expression and not condemnable in the eyes of the law. Words that have also sparked many reactions on social networks, including some 100,000 hate messages against him, says his lawyer.
Support for the young woman is not lacking. Starting with political figures of all stripes: Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Marlène Schiappa, Elisabeth Moreno, Manuel Valls, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, Marine Le Pen. But also many feminist associations such as Nous tous, Dare le feminisme, Femen France and influential feminist activists ranging from “the westernist” Solveig Mineo (close to the ideas of the extreme right) to the universalist Caroline Fourest, via the intersectional feminist Rokhaya Diallo.
The media, by exposing this cyberbullying born one evening on Instagram, have also expressed their support for Mila in the image of the show. “Daily” (broadcast on TMC) who received it very quickly, Sophia Aram who dedicated several columns to her on France Inter, but also many editorial writers such as Natasha Polony, Raphaël Enthoven and many others. Everyone agrees to denounce the young woman’s stalkers.
Feminists summoned to respond #JeSuisMila
“Me and others are faced with increased harassment from people asking us ‘Why don’t you stand up for Mila?’ We are using this traumatic and frightening case of cyberstalking to add to it against feminists and activists. “, explains Alice Coffin in the broadcast “Outdoors” of Médiapart. The author, elected mayor of Paris and lesbian activist, also adds to be shocked by the incredible violence to which the young woman is the victim.
Among the activists who are forced to declare themselves pro-Mila, some question the symbol that political figures have made of the teenager. Caroline de Haas of the We All movement, who herself left Twitter because of the cyberstalking of which she was the victim, spoke in 2020 in the columns of Liberation on this subject: “The extreme right only takes up questions of harassment or violence against women when it serves its racist agenda. On feminicides or assaults in figure skating, we do not hear the fascists.”
At the end of June 2021, journalist Lauren Bastide, a leading figure in the popularization of feminist theories in France since 2016, went even further by accusing Mila’s comments as racist. “Let’s speak frankly. I do not publicly support Mila because I do not share her vision of the world that is racist and disrespectful of Muslims in France. And you, you support her because you share this vision”, writes on Instagram host of the La Poudre podcast. And to add: “Your fight is neither a fight for justice, nor a fight for freedom, much less a feminist fight. Your fight is directed against the Muslims of France, against whom you nourish a paranoid and fetid hatred, like your new muse and like these masculinist and racist groups who harass my feminist sisters online. ”
This speech by the podcaster revolted some of the so-called universalist feminists on Twitter. Like by Caroline Fourest who denounces “Cowardly, shabby, twisted and endangering words.”
Would Mila be, as Lauren Bastide says, the muse of a fight against Muslims? No, according to the person concerned, who writes “wear on [ses] shoulders the fight for freedom of expression. ” And the young woman to add further: “When you are not physically attracted to an overweight or obese person, you are ‘grossophobic’. Not wanting to sleep with a transgender person is to be ‘transphobic’. Explain to young people claiming to be ‘non-binary’. that the pronouns ael and iel do not exist and to refuse to use inclusive writing is to be ‘enbyphobic’ “. In short, she is the spokesperson for a fed up with part of the population in France who believes “that we can’t say anything more.”
After the judgment, Mila now advocates appeasement
On Wednesday July 7, 2021, 13 people were tried in Paris for having participated in the massive cyberbullying of the teenager. Eleven were sentenced to suspended sentences of 4 to 6 months. Aged 18 to 29, none of these people identify as Muslim. During the hearing, several pleaded the “stupidity” or messages posted “without reference”.
The next day, it is at the great Mosque of Paris that we find a smiling Mila, who came to visit the place and show her desire to ease tensions. “I put them in decoration at home because I find them too beautiful” she explains to the cameras, referring to the pink Koran that the rector Chems-eddine Hafiz gave her.
In her book, she evokes a passionate love affair with a Franco-Algerian trans man who has grown her since the events of 2020. She also remembers a Muslim family near her home who allegedly hitchhiked her. to drop it off at a nearby station. “They told me they disagreed with my positions, she writes. They told me that they had been annoyed by my words, but that they would never allow themselves to do violence to me, insisting well on the fact that Islam is a religion of love and peace ‘. I didn’t tell them that in reality, Islam becomes what men make of it. And this is true of all religions. ” A speech by Mila much more measured and peaceful than we had heard so far.
On the side of social networks, pointed out to allow such torrents of hatred to pour out on a teenager, the time is also to question. On July 1, 2021, Facebook (and its subsidiary Instagram), Twitter, TikTok and YouTube are committed to better protect all users of their platforms, after having half-heartedly admitted not having done what was necessary so far.
Dan Hastings
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