Football violence leaves lasting effect on Molenbeek family

Two months after a hardware store owner and his son were brutally beaten by football hooligans in Brussels, the family is still struggling to process the racially motivated attack.

The Ziani family, who opened the Brico Ben shop in Molenbeek in 1995, explained in an interview with Bruzz that the attack back in May has left a deep mark psychologically.

Bruges supporters ransacked the store on their way to a championship game at King Baudouin stadium, causing significant material damage and beating 73-year-old Mouloud and his son while shouting racist remarks relating to the family’s Moroccan heritage.

“I already had a hernia, and it got worse during the attack,” Mouloud told Bruzz.

“I begged my attacker not to hit me because I had just come out of hospital, but to no avail. I've lost eight kilograms. I sleep very badly and wake up two or three times a night. Then I see the same images of hooligans hitting, kicking and throwing things.”

Mouloud recalled that towards the end of the attack, when he was lying on the ground, one of the hooligans wanted to throw a gas bottle at his head.

“Then another Bruges fan intervened and stopped him just in time,” Mouloud said. “I am very grateful to him for that. Ironically, he was then severely beaten up by young people from the neighbourhood. He didn't deserve that.”

The family has been running the neighbourhood shop for 30 years and say it had become a second home to them, which makes the attack all the more violating.

“This building used to be the industrial bakery of the Sarma department store chain,” Mouloud said.

“When I started, I had a huge space with mostly empty shelves. I remember that I only had enough money to buy a few shelves with merchandise. Gradually, the range grew, but it's certainly not a gold mine today.”

Mouloud came from Morocco with his parents in 1968 at the age of 15, and worked in the Sarma bakery that he would later come to run his own store from. His wife, Naziha, grew up in the same village as Mouloud and came to Belgium in 1982.

“I've always felt welcome here, got on well with everyone,” she said. “Still, that attack changed something. Sometimes I think about packing my bags and moving to Morocco.”

Naziha El Hammouti, the 63-year-old family member who arrived first on the scene after the attack, is also struggling to process the traumatic event.

“I arrived just after the attack and saw them both lying on the floor covered in blood – I thought they were dead and fainted,” she recalls.

“Since then, I've found it difficult to come here. We used to work here all year round, but the attack has broken something. It feels like a prison.

"I'm also more anxious at home. If someone taps on the window, I jump, and I lock the door, which I never used to do."