Four Muslim women sightseeing in Paris were arrested by police forces on Saturday for wearing headscarves.
The scene, which was filmed by journalists from Le Parisien, a French daily newspaper covering both international and national news, took place at the Trocadéro, a square that stands across the river from the Eiffel Tower. The four women, including one wearing a headscarf, were checked for IDs before being escorted out of the square by dozens of police officers.
In the video one of the women says: “One of us is wearing a headscarf and policemen have just checked our IDs, there is no problem, but we have been asked to leave the square.”
“We were doing some sightseeing as our uncle is visiting us, and this is what happens,” another one adds. “Now we are forced to follow them so we can be interrogated,” she continues as the four women are being shoved by policemen.
At the end of the video, another woman, accompanied with an elderly woman wearing a scarf, says they were also banned from entering the square.
On Saturday dozens of police personnel were deployed in the area as a precautionary measure ahead of an anti-Islam film protest banned by the French authorities. Overall 50 people were arrested that day, including the four women in the video.