Short Description
Fatima Charrihi, as with every day, spoke to her only sister and best friend Aicha Aissaoui in Amsterdam on the phone Thursday. At around 7 p.m., Aicha was preparing to take her children for a sushi dinner in the Dutch capital. “Have fun with your daughters, enjoy life while
Fatima Charrihi, as with every day, spoke to her only sister and best friend Aicha Aissaoui in Amsterdam on the phone Thursday. At around 7 p.m., Aicha was preparing to take her children for a sushi dinner in the Dutch capital. “Have fun with your daughters, enjoy life while you’re still with them,” Fatima said at the end of the conversation. Four hours later, she was dead.
Her 22-year-old niece, Amina Aissaoui, speaking from the Charrihi family home in the winding hills of Nice’s La Madeleine district, recalls the conversation from the same evening that the 62-year-old mother-of-seven became Mohamed Lahouaiej Boulhel’s first victim.
As he began his deadly hurtle down the city’s Promenade des Anglais, Boulhel’s truck threw Fatima, a devout Muslim who recently fasted for Ramadan, 10 meters. Boulhel killed people of his own religion, Islam—which, according to friends and family, he barely adhered to—as well as murdering and maiming Christians, Jews, Tunisians, French and young children, among others. Thursday’s truck attack, claimed by the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), left at least 84 dead and dozens in critical condition.
“If you are a Muslim, you don’t kill people. He was not a Muslim. He drank alcohol, he ate pork,” Amina says, adding that her aunt and mother had talked at length, worriedly, about the Charlie Hebdo and Paris attacks. “It doesn’t matter if it’s an Arab, a Frenchman or a Dutchman [who carried out the attack]. Innocent people are getting killed. It was cowardly.
“My aunt said if they really want to be a jihadist they have to be good to other people, go outside every day and help one person, that’s the best jihad you can have in your life,” she adds, referring to another meaning of jihad, the battle to cleanse oneself of sin, rather than fighting disbelievers.
Fatima spoke of praying that all of her family would find the happiness they deserve, says her 28-year-old niece Saida. In her final hours, Fatima was feverishly planning a trip with her daughters to Amina’s wedding in the Netherlands in September. Bouhlel took away the chance for her to witness her niece’s special day.
“Our Mum was her last conversation. She said, ‘Tomorrow, we will book it. It’s so easy and everybody can come,’” Amina says, her eyes welling-up. She immediately cancelled the wedding after Fatima’s death. “I cannot have a party without her, I cannot be happy without her.”
Fatima loved to walk, be outside and enjoy the simple aspects of life, her nieces say, showing pictures of her with a beaming smile in parks and on the promenade itself. This love of life is what took her and her family into the path of Bouhlel on Thursday evening. She told her 62-year-old husband Ahmed: “We must bring them to the fireworks, it is a holiday, it’s late but let’s bring them together,” says Amina. The others did not want to go, she says, only being brought together by Fatima’s wish to celebrate the holiday.
Murder
On Thursday night, Boulhel initiated his suicide mission at around 10.45 p.m. local time. Fatima was standing with her daughter-in-law, Huria Charrihi, 31, who the truck missed by inches, and Huria’s brother Said Nait, 35, who dived over the six-meter promenade wall with Fatima’s one-year-old grandchild Oumaima in his arms.
Fatima’s husband Ahmed and their eldest child Ali, 36, had separated from the group . Fatima died instantly just along from the Fondation Lenval hospital where she gave birth to her youngest daughter, Yasmina, now 14 years old.
Ali witnessed events unfold from afar. After sharing Moroccan pancakes and sharp, mint tea around, he pats me on the back when he is ready to speak about the events four days ago.
We step outside the family home to find a quiet spot, as two-dozen people have gathered to pay their respects inside. He stands with Said, who was present with Fatima when Bouhlel launched his massacre. Speaking through a translator, Ali offers Newsweek a detailed account of his mother’s death.
read more
http://europe.newsweek.com/final-moments-muslim-mum-seven-first-killed-nice-attack-481274?rm=eu
Comments
Send your comment