Hasna Ait Boulahcen, the woman believed to have blown herself up during a police raid that killed the suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks, swapped her party-girl persona for that of a Muslim radical just months before her death.
Boulahcen’s story is that of a young woman from a broken home with an unstable disposition who was nicknamed “Cowgirl” because of her penchant for cowboy hats before her conversion to Islam.
During Wednesday’s dawn raid in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, she was heard responding to a member of the crack police team who were hunting for her cousin Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged brains behind the attacks that killed 129 people on Friday last week.
“Where’s your boyfriend, where is he?” the officer is heard shouting on a clip filmed by local residents.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” a high-pitched voice screams back.
Several loud explosions are then heard, with Boulahcen understood to have detonated her explosives vest to become France’s first female suicide bomber.
For Sofiane, a neighbor in Aulnay-sous-Bois, Boulahcen had “the gift of the gab,” but was also “a bit crazy.”
“She might appear suddenly in front of you and start rapping,” Sofiane said.
In the eastern town of Creutzwald, near the German border, where her 74-year-old father lives, a longtime friend Jerome described her as a bon vivant who often wore a cowboy hat and boots and “smoked occasionally and drank on nights out.”
Her father, a Muslim who had moved from Paris to work at automaker Peugeot, is believed to be in Morocco.
Born in August 1989, Hasna Ait Boulahcen had a turbulent childhood, part of which she spent in a foster home.
The foster mother, who wept when she saw Boulahcen’s picture on television, recalled her young charge “applauding in front of the telly” during the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in the US.
As time went on the teen became more difficult, prone to angry outbursts and sneaking out.
Sources close to the inquiry said she had been investigated in the past for drugs offenses.
Three weeks ago, she went to live with a friend in the suburb of Drancy, her brother said, a town a short drive away from Aulnay-sous-Bois.
“We are really sad for all the victims,” he said, not wanting to give his name.
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