[Podcast]: ‘Special News Episode: On crop tops and hijabs in France’
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From Lindsey Tramuta: This episode is the first in what I hope to be a monthly series picking up apart one news story impacting France. And each time, I’ll be joined by my two friends Lauren Collins and Aida Alami. Lauren is a reporter for The New Yorker and the author of When in French: Love in a Second Language and Aida Alami is a journalist for The New York Times and NY Review of Books, among other outlets, and a filmmaker. Both have been guests on this show before. The idea emerged out of our Whatsapp group -- we’re constantly sharing our thoughts on what’s happening in the world, sometimes exclusively in emojis, but I thought that when it comes to Paris and issues influencing life and politics in France, we could go a bit deeper.
So what’s happening right now? After separatism, communautarisme, questioning whether Covid is masculine or feminine (it’s feminine apparently), there’s another obsession taking over the discussion in France: "tenue républicaine" or what is or isn’t clothing fit for the republic. What IS the correct form of dress. And is the state's obsession with the hijab part of a similar problem? We discuss.
Mentioned in this episode:
Background on the issue: www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020…rokhayadiallo
Education minister's comments: www.franceinter.fr/societe/tenue-r…que-sur-twitter
Obsession with the hijab: www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/22/f…kes-centre-stage
Macron's speech on separatism: www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/…ec_story.html
Aida's story on Maryam Pougetoux: www.nytimes.com/2018/06/01/world/…islam-france.html
On Sibeth Ndiaye's clothes: www.nytimes.com/2019/10/02/style/…acron-france.html
Lauren Collins: twitter.com/laurenzcollins
Aida Alami: twitter.com/AidaAlami