Samira Bellil's 2002 book "Dans l'Enfer des Tournantes" (In Gang-Rape Hell) gave France a rare firsthand, graphic account of the troubles women face, including her own experience of gang rape.
"Your reputation is important in the projects," wrote Bellil, who died of stomach cancer in 2003 at age 31. "It follows you everywhere. A girl can be branded easy or a little slut even if she does nothing wrong."
Another incident that highlighted the tragedies that befall women in the projects was the murder of 19-year-old Sohanne Denziane: Her ex-boyfriend doused her with gasoline and set her on fire for breaking up with him.
Some girls have taken to wearing Islamic head coverings as protection against violence. But then they face pressures from the French state, which has banned veils and other religious symbols from schools to uphold the country's secular principles _ and to quell Islamic fundamentalism. Authorities argue that girls should be empowered to cast off veils that are sometimes forced on them by their parents.
But Imloul says parents are in denial, because most of the girls in the projects date, have sex and smoke marijuana.
Sometimes, parents push their children into the mean streets.
Jenah Benzanfour was 11 when her mother threw her out of the house because she was getting into trouble at school and with police for stealing and threatening her teacher with a knife.
At 13, she started selling marijuana and Ecstasy for neighborhood thugs. At 14, she says, her uncle raped her over a period of several months. At 15, she was a prostitute.
Last month, Imloul happened to be driving by as Jenah was being beaten by a thug before onlooking neighbors. The social worker dragged Jenah away, took her to a clinic and then to the local police station.
Police were unsympathetic.
"They made fun of me, as if to say 'Why do you care, this girl is a loser,'" said Imloul. They told her she would be wasting their time because Jenah had "a bad record, bad history."
Jenah, now 16, is living with a family in a building across from her mother. She says she has stopped selling drugs and stealing and only now can reflect on her previous troubles.
"I hated the world," she said. "I had rage against everyone."
For her part, 15-year-old Rawa Khalil doesn't leave home after dark, though daytime can be harrowing, too, with boys on the street calling her "whore."
Her mother, Manoubia, 37, had been a victim of domestic violence at the hands of her drug dealing ex-husband. But now she is treated with contempt because she is no longer married.
"We have no father," Rawa said, "no one to protect us."
