Head to the headquarters of the Federation of General Student Associations (FAGE) in Montrouge, where Noa, 23, decided to get involved in the fight against discrimination in the student environment. Noa defines herself as non-binary *, feeling neither quite female nor quite male, even though the gender assigned to her at birth is female.
Noa was born in Belgium and has lived in France for six years. Having followed a university course in languages, we asked him to react to the entry of the pronoun “iel” in the Robert and to the position of the Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer for whom “theinclusive writing is not the future of the French language“.
Noa does not understand why the pronoun ‘iel’ arouses such debate. “The language is made to evolve. I don’t understand why politicians are so attached to old values. We are young, we have convictions that are not the same. It is also up to politicians to learn to live with their times.“
For Noa, recognize the pronoun “iel”, “that would allow us to already be able to use it in the legislation, for example that I do not have to gender either exclusively male or exclusively female when I go looking for an apartment.”
Noa’s commitment to French student associations also extends into politics. In Belgium, where Noa was born, voting is compulsory. For Noa, we cannot not vote. “We are part of a country and the politics of this country will inevitably influence the way we will live. It is important to go and vote and it is also important that it is not only the extremes who vote“. Noa defends compulsory voting, even if it is to vote blank.”Maybe if there was less abstention, the blank vote would be taken into account in a more legitimate way. “
Noa does not have French nationality and confides that she does not want to apply for it because of “the current policy”. “There are so many things that are wrong. The majority of politicians in France are white cis men or women who are engaged alongside men. “
Without French nationality, Noa cannot vote. “It’s frustrating. It’s not because we have nationality that we are more legitimate than others to have an impact on politics“. Finally, according to Noa,”it’s not just the presidential election. You have to vote as soon as you can and you have to be interested in all that“.
* When we first met, Noa asked to be gendered male. In writing, Noa prefers to use the midpoint.