Paris: Muslim bus driver refuses service to woman in a skirt

Paris -- On Tuesday night at around 11:00 pm, a 29-year-old woman,[we'll call her Elise] was waiting for the bus with her friend [we'll call the friend Simone] at the Botzaris stop in Paris 19e arrondissement.

The bus, driven by a Muslim gentleman [we'll call him Mohammed] stops for the two women, he looks them up and down, then leaves without opening the doors.

“The vehicle stops a few meters away at a red light,” says Elise, a physicist whose father, Kamel Bencheikh, is an Algerian poet. "She runs to the driver’s window to ask the driver why he didn’t open the doors."

The driver answered: “All you have to do is dress well. Look at your legs!” He was likely quite stimulated [if you know what I mean] by the sight of actual legs and had clearly copped a view.

Elise and her friend remained there for several minutes, stunned, before deciding to hail a cab.


“This guy who drives a bus, paid for by my taxes, prevented my daughter, holder of a valid Navigo bus pass, and therefore in good standing, who has never had anything to blame herself for getting on… to get on the bus just because she wore a skirt,” complained her father, who was born in Setif, Algeria.

He describes the driver as an “Islamist,” however, the daily rag known as Le Parisien, who reported the incident, added a note: “Bencheikh free interpretation,” as to disconnect Muslims who practice sharia from any bad behavior.

In anger, Kamel Bencheikh published a virulent post, then a second one on Facebook. But it was immediately censored and taken down by the social network because Mark Zuckerberg is a left-wing publisher, who gets away with censoring what he finds offensive.

“I am accused [by Facebook] of inciting hatred. But I published the facts because I wanted them to be known. To denounce this drift,” continues Bencheikh who describes himself as an “anti-Islamist militant.” His Facebook post says: “I claim my Islamophobia,” and he says he has since received hundreds of insulting messages via Messenger, none of which have been censored.

“I won’t give up,” says Elise’s father. On Saturday, with his daughter, he filed a formal complaint. He knows the police will do nothing. He knows that even if the police launched an investigation, no court would ever sentence the bus driver and the Paris transit system would not discipline him.

What does he want then? “At least an apology. I want RATP [the Paris public transport authority] to apologize publicly to my daughter”.

There's a better chance of seeing the Ayatollah at a same-sex wedding.


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