LILLE. Many of his classmates gathered yesterday in the courtyard of their high school, the Fenelon, in the center of Lille. To remember Foaud, 17, who is gone. “We don’t accuse anyone, we just want things to change,” they said. Because Fouad, a transgender friend, hanged herself Wednesday in her room, in a shelter center nearby, where she lived. In recent months she had begun to dress as a girl and a few weeks ago she had also appeared in a skirt in high school, sparking an initial opposition, which was then overcome. After the keyboard lions were unleashed on social networks, many against the school teachers, generally without knowing anything about Fouad, her classmates wanted to remember her and reiterate the truth: to underline how difficult it is for the school system and for the Whole company in France (and elsewhere) accept a trans. According to her friends, “she was not persecuted, but in the grip of a malaise due to the difficulty of living in a society that does not want to evolve”.
Annabelle, also 17, interviewed by the Agence France Presse, recalled that Fouad “had never expressed the intention to commit suicide” and described her as “joyful, intelligent, funny, kind towards others”. “We do not seek guilty or responsible for what happened – he added -. We just want new rules to protect trans people even at school ». It turned out that the pupil was stopped in the corridors of the high school by a person in charge of the school. “I understand the desire to be yourself – he had told her, filmed from a cell phone without his knowledge -. But we have to accompany you as best we can, because here there are different sensitivities, according to age and education ». Fouad replied: “It is all of them who must be educated. I don’t understand what the problem is. I’ll never understand. ‘ She was later allowed to return to school dressed as she wanted. But the discomfort was not over. Also because Fouad was not just a joyful person.
He had a complicated family situation. Of North African origins, she had suffered from discrimination not only of gender but also racist discrimination inside and outside school. According to Annabelle, “she suffered from a deep pain that dates back to a long time ago”, probably aggravated by the situation that had arisen around her identity, especially at school. Meanwhile, in communicating the death of Fouad, yesterday the superintendent still used the male gender. While her companions want to remember her for what Fouad wanted to be or become, a woman.
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