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If France wants to maintain its status as a multicultural democracy, it must reevaluate whether laïcité and the limitations it enforces work for all French citizens, not just the white bourgeois. (Getty Images)
Outside the Lycée Robert Doisneau in Vaulx-en-Velin, a suburb of Lyon, France, there is a large circular window that doubles as a mirror. Every morning, I watch my students gather around it to remove their hijabs, pin back stray hairs, and tighten loose ponytails before crossing the border into their high school. Throughout the day, they wrap their veils around their necks like scarves, ready for the moment they will cross the border again, crowding around the same mirror to pin it back in place.
This ritual is not unique to the Lycée Robert Doinseau or the city of Lyon; it is a tenet of the French education system, the consequence of a 2004 law that banned the presence of “conspicuous religious symbols” in schools on the basis of the French principle of laïcité (the oft-forgotten “ité” of the liberté, egalité, fraternité trinity), translated into English as “secularism,” or the separation of church and state. The state’s restraining order against religion has been stitched into the fabric of French society: laïcité dates back to a 1905 law that aimed to eliminate the influence of the Catholic church on politics, putting one last nail in the theocratical coffin. France guarantees freedom of religion, but institutions of the state — such as public schools — must be religiously neutral.
As a Fulbright English teaching assistant in Lyon, I have begun to understand what the French mean when they claim that “la république est laïque.” When students and faculty pass through the school’s gates, their religious, political, and philosophical beliefs are subordinated to their national identity. The majority of my school’s students are Muslim. Still, there are no prayer rooms, no affinity groups, and no Halal meals. If there were a Pledge of Allegiance, there would certainly be no mentions of God. All instances of proselytizing, prayer, and, as of 2004, religious signage and clothing are documented and potentially sanctioned.
It is a jarring departure from a country whose citizens wear their religion on their sleeves. In the United States, refusing to accommodate an employee’s religious beliefs or practices is prohibited by the Civil Rights Act. Americans understand liberty as the freedom to pray, assemble, and profess religious beliefs — whereas France conceptualizes this same liberty as the freedom from religion and the divisions it may sow.
Like most legislation, laïcité began with good intentions: places of learning will transcend religious dogma! Students won’t be discriminated against for their beliefs! But it has expanded its reach to contract around the lives it aimed to liberate.
When I told my host family I’d be teaching in Lyon’s Vaulx-en-Velin, they reacted with sympathy, vaguely alluding to behavioral issues. Others were more direct: ‘But that’s where all the Arabs live!’
One day, our school has a fire drill. I watch as hundreds of students flood out the gates and dozens of girls wrap their hijabs as though they’ve been caught in winter without a coat. They do this even though we will only wait outside for a few minutes, even though they will inevitably be forced to remove them again.
Until 2004, religious clothing and symbols were not deemed incompatible with secularism. Yet laïcité gained renewed prominence with the increase of the country’s Muslim population. France’s decolonization of Northern African countries in the 1960s precipitated a wave of Muslim labor migrants throughout the late twentieth century. While the French government treated these populations as unassimilable and temporary, many migrants never left, giving rise to new generations of French-born Muslims.
France now hosts the largest Muslim population in Europe, half of whom are born or naturalized French citizens. Most of these families live, work, and attend school on the outskirts of French cities. These banlieues — a pejorative term for immigrant neighborhoods — are marked by their looming brutalist structures, a sharp contrast from the cobblestone streets and Gothic Cathedrals of city centers. Originally conceived as a haven for workers in postwar France, these neighborhoods have only isolated and impoverished Muslims and other minority populations.
When I told my host family I’d be teaching at the Lycée Robert Doisneau, located in Lyon’s largest immigrant neighborhood, Vaulx-en-Velin, they reacted with sympathy, vaguely alluding to behavioral issues. Others were more direct: “But that’s where all the Arabs live!”
A quick scan of an average classroom in my high school reveals a desk carved with the epithet “1, 2, 3, viva l’Algérie!” and a heater marked by the word “TUNISIE.” My students are quick to remind me they are already bilingual (many speak both French and Arabic) and eager to ask me what I know about Ramadan. They are the second and third generations French conservatives are so afraid of — the families who not only stayed in France but failed to sacrifice their religious and cultural heritage for the republic.
In response, France’s once enlightened secularism has been manipulated to drag its Muslim population down the long path of cultural assimilation. Anxieties about Islam overtaking French culture, a rising climate of xenophobia, and acts of terrorism in the early 2000s have led the state to encroach more and more flagrantly into the private sphere of its Muslim citizens. The banning of “conspicuous” religious symbols in 2004 represented the first major effort to strip Muslims of their religious identity and reassert the power of the French government. While the ban applies to other religious symbols, its real target is Muslim women. (The government banned “oversize” Christian crosses but continued to permit the more popular cross necklace.)
Over the last two decades, the state has attempted to regulate what Muslims wear to the beach, what they eat, and how they educate their children. In 2020, French president Emmanuel Macron proposed “French Islam,” a practice of faith managed by the state, failing to recognize the irony of a government-run religion in a secular republic. These policies suggest the French government cannot distinguish between the mundane behaviors that make up a diverse state and the separatism that might lead to extremism.
When I led an “invent your own country” activity with my students, they dreamed up places like “Algesie,” a hybrid of Algeria and Tunisia where citizens are allowed to pray in public, celebrate both Eid and Bastille Day, and speak French, Arabic, and English. They invented countries where they could shamelessly express who they are, not obligated to leave important pieces of their identity at the school’s gates.
In one class of sophomores, I pursued a yearlong yearbook project. When we voted on a theme, “Origins” won by a landslide. My students discussed their Algerian, Italian, Tunisian, Congolese, Moroccan, German, and Angolan roots, but they also highlighted their shared French identity. They are proof that pride in your home and your origins are not mutually exclusive; in fact, it is evidence of a healthy multicultural democracy. Even as the far-right party of Marine Le Pen promulgates claims of Islamic extremism and radicalization, the Center for the Study of Conflict in Paris found “massive adherence of French Muslims to the Republic,” its values, and its institutions.
When I accompanied one of my classes on a field trip, several female students did not join because they did not want to be seen in public without their hijabs. My colleagues, accustomed to these daily injustices, shrugged off their absence. Although the ban claims to liberate Muslim girls from the influence of family and community, it effectively restricts their movement, banning Muslim women from public spaces. Another day, I announced that it was time to take portraits for our yearbook. The students who wear a hijab initially refused to be photographed, but when I told them they could wear their headscarves, they reacted with excitement. I was struck by how rarely they get to decide how they are represented.
Many of the female students at my school wear an abaya — a floor-length, loose-fitting, traditionally Muslim dress. It is not unlike a long-sleeved maxi dress. Yet because the abaya is worn by Muslim women, the French Ministry of Education has begun investigating whether it violates the principles of laïcité. Regulation of dress would not be unprecedented: in 2015, a Muslim student was kicked out of class because a teacher deemed her long skirt too religious. This raises the question of whether the ban really aims to regulate religious symbols or if it will be repeatedly reinterpreted to force Muslim students into conformity and assimilation.
There is still no evidence that wearing a religious sign constitutes a threat to public order, and the French government has failed to demonstrate the positive effects of the ban. Still, the country stubbornly insists on assimilation, squeezing every French citizen into its framework of “republican values.” Chief among these is universalism: a belief that one’s Frenchness supersedes one’s class, gender, race, and religion. To the French, Americans’ obsession with hyphenated identities — African American, Asian American, Arab American, and so on — only further divides our citizenry along racial and religious lines. America’s fixation on race and ethnicity in politics, referred to in French as wokisme, is labeled as regressive, a serious threat to democracy and fuel for racial strife.
The French take pride in having a government that does not recognize racial or ethnic distinctions, but proclaiming equality does not ensure it. Instead, it allows the state to continue overlooking institutional discrimination. It enables the advancement of harmful legislation, like the hijab ban, without reckoning with its repercussions.
France does not collect census data on race or religion, so the country is not held accountable for economic, educational, and employment disparities between different populations. It does not have to reckon with the fact that 42 percent of Muslims report having experienced discrimination due to their religion, a number that increases to 60 percent among women who wear a headscarf.
Before becoming an English teaching assistant, I idealized France as a more sophisticated, more progressive version of the United States. In many aspects, I wasn’t mistaken. Even as an American living in France, I enjoyed access to the country’s affordable single-payer health care, and my friends pursuing master’s degrees did not have to budget more than $400 for their tuition. While access to an abortion in the United States depends on what state you live in, French lawmakers have made strides to enshrine reproductive rights in France’s constitution.
Yet while France has proved ahead of its time on several issues, these cultural scripts have allowed the international community to turn a blind eye to how France treats its Muslim population. If the country wants to maintain its status as a multicultural democracy, it must reevaluate whether laïcité and the limitations it enforces work for all French citizens, not just the white bourgeois.
The hijab and other religious symbols that do not disrupt class should be allowed in school, and the 2004 ban should be abolished. Only then will the young women at the Lycée Robert Doisneau, forced to remove their hijabs every day before crossing the school’s gates, be able to participate fully in their own education. Only then will they become full citizens of the French Republic.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi tendered his “deepest condolences” over the incident.
By JNS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi spoke on Tuesday in the wake of the terrorist attack along the Sinai border that killed three IDF soldiers.
El-Sisi extended his “deepest condolences” over the incident, and Netanyahu thanked the Egyptian leader for agreeing to a “thorough and joint investigation,” according to an Israeli readout of the call.
“The two leaders expressed their commitment to continue strengthening the peace and security cooperation that is vital to both countries,” added the statement.
The terrorist who killed three Israeli soldiers over the weekend was identified on Monday as Mohamed Salah Ibrahim.
Ibrahim, 22, was drafted into the Egyptian military last June and stationed along the Israeli border as a police officer.
He had complained repeatedly about his military service and recently went absent without leave for 18 days.
Ibrahim shot dead Sgt. Lia Ben-Nun, 19, and Staff Sgt. Uri Iluz, 20, overnight on Friday while they were manning an observation post near the border. During the subsequent manhunt, Staff Sgt. Ohad Dahan, 20, was killed in Israeli territory in an exchange of fire with the terrorist, who was also fatally shot.
A fourth Israeli soldier was lightly wounded.
A preliminary investigation found that Ibrahim crossed the border through an emergency gate used by IDF soldiers in coordination with Cairo.
Egypt claimed he had crossed the border to chase drug smugglers in the aftermath of an earlier bust.
However, Israel’s Army Radio reported on Sunday that the Egyptian policeman had in his possession six magazines for his rifle, a Koran and a knife. The IDF believes that the presence of the Koran suggests that Ibrahim was motivated by Islamic religious extremism, the report said.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant and Egyptian Defense Minister Maj. Gen. Mohamed Ahmed Zaki spoke on Saturday evening and agreed to cooperate in investigating the attack.
The post Netanyahu, el-Sisi speak after Egypt attack killed three IDF soldiers appeared first on World Israel News.
The dam break added a stunning new dimension to Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, now in its 16th month.
By Associated Press
The wall of a major dam in a part of southern Ukraine that Moscow controls collapsed Tuesday, triggering floods, endangering Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and threatening drinking water supplies as both sides in the war rushed to evacuate residents and blamed each other for the emergency.
Ukraine accused Russian forces of blowing up the Kakhovka dam and hydroelectric power station on the Dnieper River, while Russian officials blamed Ukrainian military strikes in the contested area. It was not possible to verify the claims.
The potentially far-reaching environmental and social consequences of the disaster quickly became clear as homes, streets and businesses flooded downstream and emergency crews began evacuations; officials raced to check cooling systems at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant; and authorities expressed concern about supplies of drinking water to the south in Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.
Ukrainian forces were widely seen to be moving forward with a long-anticipated counteroffensive in patches along more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) of frontline in the east and south of Ukraine.
It was not immediately clear whether either side benefits from the damage to the dam, since both Russian-controlled and Ukrainian-held lands are at risk of flooding. The damage could also hinder Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the south and distract its government, while at the same time Russia depends on the dam to supply water to Crimea.
Patricia Lewis, director of the International Security Program at Chatham House think tank in London, said apportioning blame is difficult but “there are all sorts of reasons why Russia would do this.”
“There were reports (last fall) of Russians having mined the reservoir. The question we should pose is why the Ukrainians would do this to themselves, given this is Ukrainian territory,” she said.
Experts have previously said the dam structure was suffering from disrepair. David Helms, a retired American scientist who has monitored the reservoir since the start of the war, wrote in an e-mail that it wasn’t clear if the damage was deliberate or simple neglect from Russian forces occupying the facility.
But Helms reserved judgement, noting as well a Russian history of attacking dams.
Amid official outrage, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he convened an urgent meeting of the National Security Council. He alleged that Russian forces set off a blast inside the dam structure at 2.50 a.m. (2350 GMT) and said some 80 settlements were in danger.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called it “a deliberate act of sabotage by the Ukrainian side … aimed at cutting water supplies to Crimea.”
Both sides warned of a looming environmental disaster. Ukraine’s Presidential Office said some 150 metric tons of oil escaped from the dam machinery and that another 300 metric tons could still leak out.
Andriy Yermak, the head of Ukraine’s President’s Office, posted a video showing swans swimming near an administrative building in the flooded streets of Russian-occupied Nova Kakhovka, a city in the Kherson region where some 45,000 people lived before the war. Other footage he posted showed flood waters reaching the second floor of the building.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry called for residents of 10 villages on the Dnieper’s right bank and parts of the city of Kherson downriver to gather essential documents and pets, turn off appliances, and leave, while cautioning against possible disinformation.
The Russian-installed mayor of occupied Nova Kakhovka, Vladimir Leontyev, said it was being evacuated as water poured into the city.
Ukraine’s nuclear operator Energoatom said in a Telegram statement that the damage to the dam “could have negative consequences” for the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is Europe’s biggest, but wrote that for now the situation is “controllable.”
The UN.’s International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement there was “no immediate risk to the safety of the plant,” which requires water for its cooling system.
The plant also has alternative sources of water, including a large cooling pond than can provide water “for some months,” the statement said.
Ukrainian authorities have previously warned that the dam’s failure could unleash 18 million cubic meters (4.8 billion gallons) of water and flood Kherson and dozens of other areas where hundreds of thousands of people live.
The World Data Center for Geoinformatics and Sustainable Development, a Ukrainian nongovernmental organization, estimated that nearly 100 villages and towns would be flooded. It also reckoned that the water level would start dropping only after five-seven days.
A total collapse in the dam would wash away much of the broad river’s left bank, according to the Ukraine War Environmental Consequences Working Group, an organization of environmental activists and experts documenting the war’s environmental effects.
Videos posted online began testifying to the spillover. One showed floodwaters inundating a long roadway; another showed a beaver scurrying for high ground from rising waters.
The incident also drew international outrage, including from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who said the “outrageous act … demonstrates once again the brutality of Russia’s war in Ukraine.”
Ukraine controls five of the six dams along the Dnieper, which runs from its northern border with Belarus down to the Black Sea and is crucial for the entire country’s drinking water and power supply.
Ukraine’s state hydro power generating company wrote in a statement that “the station cannot be restored.” Ukrhydroenergo also claimed that Russia blew up the station from inside the engine room.
Leontyev, the Russian-appointed mayor, said numerous Ukrainian strikes on the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant destroyed its valves, and “water from the Kakhovka reservoir began to uncontrollably flow downstream.” Leontyev added that damage to the station was beyond repair, and it would have to be rebuilt.
Ukraine and Russia have previously accused each other of targeting the dam with attacks, and last October, Zelensky predicted that Russia would destroy the dam in order to cause a flood.
Authorities, experts and residents have for months expressed concerns about water flows through — and over — the Kakhovka dam.
In February, water levels were so low that many feared a meltdown at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, whose cooling systems are supplied with water from the Kakhovka reservoir held up by the dam. By mid-May, after heavy rains and snow melt, water levels rose beyond normal levels, flooding nearby villages. Satellite images showed water washing over damaged sluice gates.
The post Collapse of major dam in southern Ukraine triggers emergency as Moscow and Kyiv blame each other appeared first on World Israel News.
Iran says its new missile has a range of 1,400km and can travel at 15 times the speed of sound, bypassing U.S. and Israeli defense systems.
By Associated Press
Iran claimed on Tuesday that it created a hypersonic missile capable of traveling at 15 times the speed of sound, adding a new weapon to its arsenal as tensions remain high with the United States over Tehran’s nuclear program.
The new missile — called Fattah, or “Conqueror” in Farsi — was unveiled even as Iran said it would reopen its diplomatic posts on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia after reaching a détente with Riyadh following years of conflict.
The tightly choreographed segment on Iranian state television apparently sought to show that Tehran’s hard-line government can still deploy arms against its enemies across much of the Middle East.
“Today we feel that the deterrent power has been formed,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said at the event. “This power is an anchor of lasting security and peace for the regional countries.”
Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace program, unveiled what appeared to be a model of the missile. Hajizadeh claimed the missile had a range of up to 1,400 kilometers (870 miles).
That’s about mid-range for Iran’s expansive ballistic missile arsenal, which the Guard has built up over the years as Western sanctions largely prevent it from accessing advanced weaponry.
“There exists no system that can rival or counter this missile,” Hajizadeh claimed.
That claim, however, depends on how maneuverable the missile is. Ballistic missiles fly on a trajectory in which anti-missile systems like the Patriot can anticipate their path and intercept them. Tuesday’s event showed what appeared to be a moveable nozzle for the Fattah, which could allow it to change trajectories in flight. The more irregular the missile’s flight path, the more difficult it becomes to intercept.
Iranian officials did not release footage of a Fattah successfully launching and then striking a target. Hajizadeh later said that there had been a ground test of the missile’s engine.
A ground test involves a rocket motor being put on a stand and fired to check its abilities while launching a missile with that rocket motor is much more complex.
Hypersonic weapons, which fly at speeds in excess of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, could pose crucial challenges to missile defense systems because of their speed and maneuverability. Iran described the Fattah as being able to reach Mach 15 — which is 15 times the speed of sound.
China is believed to be pursuing the weapons, as is America. Russia claims to already be fielding the weapons and has said it used them on the battlefield in Ukraine. However, speed and maneuverability isn’t a guarantee the missile will successfully strike a target. Ukraine’s air force in May said it shot down a Russian hypersonic Kinzhal missile with a Patriot battery.
Gulf Arab countries allied with the U.S. widely use the Patriot missile system in the region. Israel, Iran’s main rival in the Mideast, also has its own robust air defenses.
In November, Hajizadeh initially claimed that Iran had created a hypersonic missile, without offering evidence to support it. That claim came during the nationwide protests that followed the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini after her arrest by the country’s morality police.
Tuesday’s announcement came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is to begin a visit to Saudi Arabia.
The post ‘Deterrent power has been formed’: Iran unveils what it says is a ‘hypersonic missile’ appeared first on World Israel News.
“Ukrainians cannot support the dynamics of advancement either in width or in depth, they cannot logistically cover mass movements, but more importantly, they cannot establish a stable rear. In fact, for the counteroffensive to make sense at all, they would first have to disrupt both Russian logistics and the rear, as well as cut their lines of communication. But how can they achieve this? With what?” – Captain Liner.