Mom Stands Trial Over Child's 9/11 T-Shirt

France is aghast over a woman who sent her 3-year-old to school wearing a T-shirt that read "I am a bomb" on the front and "Jihad, born on 11 September" on the back, reports the BBC. (See an image of it here.) Bouchra Bagour is charged with "glorifying crime," but says she put the shirt on her son—named "Jihad"—last September "without stopping to think about it," and that it has no meaning other than being the date on which her son was born. "It's the day [of] his birth I wanted to highlight, not the year," she said in court.

Though France24 reports she could have faced up to five years in prison, prosecutors are calling for a $1,300 fine for Bagour and $3,900 for her brother, Zeyad, who made the shirt. "Who can claim that this is not a direct and scandalous allusion to terrorism?" said the prosecutor, who added that neither defendant has expressed regret over the shirt. But Zeyad countered that the boy's name is Jihad, and that the French word for "bomb" is also slang for "excellent, great," reports All Voices. (More Bouchra Bagour stories.)