A Few Observations on Paris
I spent a year in Paris from August 2001 to August 2002. Two significant things that happened during that time:
- 9/11.
- France passed a law banning people from leaving their dog shit all over the sidewalks.
A few more things that have happened since then:
- Paranoia about Muslim immigrants leading to a law banning headscarves and other religious iconography in schools.
- A ban on smoking in public places.
- Sarkozy became the first “American” president of France
A few changes I’ve observed so far in the two plus days I’ve been here:
- Less incredibly ancient ladies dressed to the nines in their Chanel suits — I think they’re dying off in droves!
- Only a couple of dog shit pile encounters a day.
- Far fewer Eastern European refugees sitting by metro stops, begging. But they’re definitely still a presence.
- Very few people smoking.
- People still like to obsessively people watch.
- People still sigh impatiently when I try to talk in French and brusquely switch to English if they’re able. Oh well.
If you’re interested, see some pics from the trip so far.
Posted on June 17th, 2009 by DeepthiW
Filed under: Global Culture, Uncategorized
Oh, the law about religious “signs” is not new at all! But there’s been a lot of debate whether it applied to headscarves or not, and if so why not to crosses, to people refusing to eat certain foods, etc.
So there’s been a lot of debate (for once, good quality discussion could be found in the media, though unfortunately some kept it at thinly-veiled anti-”Arab” levels…)
All in all a complex subject not fit for discussion here, but your opinion strikes me as the same kind of “wow, this is an outsider interpretation” feel I had when a Canadian friend included France in WW2 losers without a second thought — feeling it to be both a “shocking” truth and yet wanted to argue some finer points
Wow, I’m super confused — what about this law that was passed in 2004, and led to much outcry worldwide? Did I completely misunderstand “France Bans Head Scarves In School?” I was referring of course to that larger discussion in pulling in Muslim paranoia and the religious iconography–since these were among the issues brought up in discussions that I read at the time.
I can totally appreciate your response, given that I’m obviously giving a negative interpretation (Muslim paranoia) — but I hope you realize that I think this paranoia applies just as much or even more so to the United States and other European countries, and that I believe a similar distrust/paranoia of the West exists in most non-Western countries. Of course this just my opinion, and after all, I am an outsider!
You know what Charlotte, I don’t know why but I got both super confused by your comment and then have been mulling it over–and then all of sudden realized that this is part and parcel of the weirdness of studying at an American university in Paris with two teachers who are neither of them French. There’s a whole extra layer of filtering going on here beyond my own personal one that is somehow throwing me for a loop…wonder if you will have anything similar next year with your program….
No no, I think your analysis of it is spot-on — I find it especially interesting because it’s phrasing the issue with a totally different set of words and concepts, and even though what you are saying is obviously true, the perspective is just that slightly different that it’s an adjustment to me even though I can totally get it.
My comment was confusing (I think) because I could not decide how much I wanted to write in this forum. There’s been a law voted specifically, indeed; to many French, it was just a way of stating expressly something that was implied by an older law about proselytism in school, but obviously the previous law was ambiguous enough that nobody could agree on whether it applied or not in this case.
As to paranoia — I agree that it’s there in Europe too. I don’t even know if it’s less than in the US, though I think it tends to take more racial and less religious form in France.
The discussions I was mostly hearing at the time (and maybe this is because of my specific set of friends) were not so much centered on “Islam” as on “the TYPE of Islam that forces girls to hide their hair”. Some, even in progressive circles, felt that there was something wrong with accepting that young girls without a real choice would wear a sign that said “hey, I should be hidden because I’m temptation” (once again, this is an interpretation of the veil that is predominant among these set of people, not some kind of absolute truth). These people defended the ban; they were joined by supporter of a totally a-religious vision of school (who argued of the ostentatious nature of the veil) and by a clearly racist faction.
On the other side were advocates of the “it’s THEIR culture and THEIR choice”, feminists who thought it was better to have girls were a headscarf and go to school than be kept at home to protect them from males, and people who think religious diktats should trump societal norms (3 very different subsets of people, to clarify).
So on both sides, I would say there were alliances of people with wildly differing agendas. Around me people were mainly concerned either with religious freedom or with the feminist side of the discussion (not so much with the culture issue, interestingly), so it was rarely phrased in terms of intolerance — but that doesn’t make your point any less valid!
(sorry for the long long comment — that’s what I wanted to avoid the first time!)
I really appreciate the extended comment! Chatting it out isn’t feasible right now, but the topic is so interesting
I would say that two of the three subsets of people you describe here were also present in the English language media I read about it — I didn’t have very many verbal discussions with people in the US, at least partly because I don’t have many connections to the Muslim communities here, and because the issue cropped up on a more local level here than a national one. The subset I would say was not represented here was the feminist one.
When the isolated incidents across the country were discussed, I think there was usually an awareness, often explicitly stated, that racial discrimination could be a significant factor — which makes it easier for me to conceive of the issue in France in those terms.
But the feminist discussion was definitely lacking, and is, I think, symptomatic of the tense gender politics in this country, and reactionary attitudes that reject even the word “feminist.” I have major problems with the “new” feminism now dominating gender discussion in the US, but I’m also fascinated by how many people reject the term as soon as they hear it, still preoccupied with old-fashioned stereotypes of bra burnings! (Which apparently happened once or not at all, I’m told!)
Thanks again for responding!