“We constructed the idea that freedom was secularism, young people consider that freedom is to do what we want,” underlines Jean Viard

The one who was principal at the Maurice Ravel high school in Paris resigned. Decision taken at the end of last week. The man had been threatened with death after an altercation last month with a student. What is happening today in our public schools and high schools? A social question deciphered by Jean Viard.

After the resignation of a high school principal in Paris, threatened with death after an altercation with a student last month, the State decided to file a complaint for slanderous denunciation. The student said she had been assaulted. The head of the establishment, according to his account, had asked this student to remove her veil. The analysis of sociologist Jean Viard.

franceinfo: Is there a crisis of authority at school today?

Jean Viard: I wouldn’t say things like that. I would say that there is a new religion developing in France – around 10 to 20% of French people – Islam, and in Islam, there is an extremely rigorous current carried by the Salafists and the Brotherhood. , who actually may want to lead the fight against the values ​​of the Enlightenment, against gender equality, etc. There are all these issues.

Catholics have their schools – practicing Catholics – where they can have the religious symbols they want. We saw this clearly with the Stanislas College affair. And so there is also this feeling, among some Muslims, that they are not treated the same way. So we have to say things. Afterwards, there is this attack against secularism, which is absolutely incontestable. At the same time, there are only 26% of Muslim ladies in this country who wear the veil. Basically, one in four women. The veil is not worn by all women.

There is this question of private schools and there is another question, it is the question of the globalization of cultures. That is to say that the digital world is a world dominated by the Anglo-Saxon world, in which they have the idea that basically, you go everywhere as you want. If I schematize things like this, you come to school, in jeans, without pants, in a miniskirt, with a veil on your head. And this is the dominant culture in the media culture of the new generation.

And so, how do these globalized youth react? She reacts by systematically defending the weakest. Because that’s it, which is at the same time a great value. So the question of this globalized culture: take the abaya, this traditional feminine garment, 71% of French people were for the ban, but only 41% of young people. And it wasn’t the Muslims who were against it. This means that young people today consider that freedom is to do what you want. Whereas we constructed the idea that freedom was secularism, that is to say the separation of religion and public space.

And for the moment, we tend, if I may, to repeat that we must defend secularism, I agree with them. But I think we also have to ask ourselves how, in this globalized culture where the idea of ​​freedom is this idea, how we construct the story of the link between these two ideas. That is to say, we listen to young people, because they are on positive values ​​of freedom, it is still better than if it were on values ​​of constraint. Except that their idea of ​​freedom is not linked to secularism, it is actually linked to this very Anglo-Saxon culture.

I think there is a real debate there, on how we share this fundamental idea of ​​secularism, that is to say the separation of religion and public space, and then this idea of ​​Anglo-Saxon freedom, and that it is also respectable, and that we must not mix that with Salafism, with the minority rise of a very rigorous Islam, there is an ideological fight. We must rearm the school to restart the struggle, to impose secularism as we did after 1905. That is a battle. And the second question, how do we basically articulate this Anglo-Saxon discourse of freedom with our values ​​of secularism.

You are talking to us about contesting secularism because that is, it seems, what concerns us in the case of this Maurice Ravel high school. But this aspiration for more freedom always has a link with religion, and the challenge to secularism, where can it crystallize?

She has no connection with religion. You see, I come from a generation where my sister was expelled because she wore pants. Afterwards, the young girls were sent away because they wore miniskirts. And it is constantly the woman’s body that is under debate, including of course in this rigorous Islam, which means that boys can arrive, dressed as they want, and girls cannot. So gender equality is obviously not guaranteed, which is obviously unacceptable in our society.

But we are obliged, not at all, to give in on values, I want to repeat it, but we are obliged to say to ourselves: how do we articulate this idea of ​​freedom, “You come as you want “, or this idea of ​​freedom, that secularism favors separations. I think we need to ask ourselves these questions. It must be remembered that private schools have the right to religious symbols, and that therefore there is a feeling among certain Muslims that there are double standards since there is no or very little of Muslim schools. And so, is our objective for each religion to build its own school system? There is also this question behind it.