Margot Vonthron
After the paris attacks, I felt I needed to pay tribute to the everyday heroes that went out of their comfort zone to save lives. Instead of talking about terror, I wanted to talk about the solidarity that we witnessed between people.
This is Soufian, he owns a Lebanese fast food/restaurant in my neighbourhood.
A small place where the food is tasty and where you feel at home. People sit down and debate about current affairs… for hours sometimes. This place is definitely one of my favourite in the neighbourhood.
This restaurant is located in front of the Bataclan and during the attacks became a shelter for people. When Soufian heard the gunshots, he asked everyone sitting outside to run inside, went out and closed the iron curtain behind him. He felt he could not just stay inside and wait. He decided to stand in the middle of the street to help people and block the cars from passing in the street. He was the only one there. The police arrived 15 mins later. The atmosphere was tense and 15 mins seemed endless. He saw death from very close.
Soufian has such an inquisive mind, reads a lot and asks a lot of questions to himself.
For him, terrorism has nothing to do with Islam. Islam means peace, helping each other, sharing. He feels Daech has twisted the idea of religion as these atrocities go against the islamic culture.