French waitress ‘assaulted’ for serving alcohol over Ramadan

A WAITRESS in a Nice cafe was allegedly assaulted by two men because she refused to stop serving alcohol on the first day of Ramadan.

The waitress, a French 30-year-old of Tunisian origin, said she was serving drinks on the cafe terrace when two men started insulting her in Arabic, calling her a “dirty whore” and telling her she should be “ashamed” for serving alcohol during the holy month.

The unnamed waitress, who is Muslim and observes Ramadan herself, said one of the men shouted: “If I was God, I would have hung you.” The waitress retorted: “You’re not God to judge me.”

One of the men then rushed towards her and violently slapped her face, knocking the woman to the floor, the cafe’s CCTV footage reportedly shows.

The alleged beating on Monday has prompted a heated political debate over whether France is falling prey to “religious fundamentalism and ghettoised communities”.

The incident took place less than a week before football fans arrive in the French Riviera town for Sunday’s Euro 2016 match between Poland and Northern Ireland.

The two men have reportedly been identified. One of them is known to be an illegal migrant who is a notoriously threatening figure in the district, but both are currently at large. The waitress, who works at the Vitis Café in central Nice, said: “I’m so scared. Why did they insult me? I feel debased, humiliated, sullied. I don’t want other women to have to be victims of such an attack.” She told a French magazine, that she was not serving alcohol to go against her religious duty, but because she was a waitress.

She has filed a police complaint for “voluntary violence”.