From the Photo Archives: Simone Veil

Photo: Ariel J Friedlander

Looking for a particular photograph, I came upon a group of black and white pictures that I'd taken in the 1980's. I've always rather liked these ones of Simone Veil.

Simone Veil was a French Jew who survived Auschwitz-Birkenau and made a life back in France as a lawyer and a politician. She was at the forefront of the fight for legal abortion in her country. She became President of the European Parliament in 1979. Amongst the honours awarded her were (honorary) Dame of the British Empire, the Grand Cross of the Légion d'Honneure, and her face  & story recorded on a €2 coin. She was the 6th woman ever to enter the Academie Française*, and the 5th woman in history to be buried in the Panthéon**.

I wish for the life of me I could remember when and where I met and photographed her. At first I thought it must have been the Remembering for the Future conference in Oxford in 1988, but I don't think she was there. The other possibility that comes to mind is that it was an assignment when I was the photographer for the Jewish Herald newspaper in London.

To find out more about her, here are some obituaries:

The Guardian

The Economist (paywall)

Jewish Chronicle

Los Angeles Times

New York Times (paywall)

René Cassin

gouvernement fr

The Times (paywall)

Photo:  Ariel J Friedlander

* ok, the other women in the Academie Française are/were:

Marguerite Yourcenar (writer)

Jacqueline de Romilly (classical Greek scholar)

Hélène Carrère d'Encausse (political historian)

Florence Delay (writer & actress)

Assia Djebar (writer & film-maker)

as for what the Academie does - here is an inkling

** and the other 4 in the Panthéon are:

Marie Curie

Geneviève de Gaulle-Anthonioz (hero of the Resistance)

Germaine Tillion (hero of the Resistance)

Sophie Berthelot (a bit problematic as she was buried with her husband on the same day rather than for her own achievements)

You can read more about them here.

Angouleme Grand Prix Lacks Women Nominees

Who is going to start the French branch of Laydeez Do Comics?

Shared from the BBC website:

French comics festival marred by sexism row

• 6 January 2016
 
• From the section Europe

Image copyrightAFP/Getty Images

Image captionOnly one woman has ever won the Grand Prix award in the Angouleme festival

A prestigious award for graphic novelists in France is facing calls for a boycott after its long list of nominees failed to include any women.

The 42-year-old Grand Prix at Angouleme has long faced criticism for its failure to recognise women cartoonists.

This year, a pressure group is calling for a boycott, saying "it is no longer tolerable" that "renowned female creators" are left off the list of 30.

At least three male nominees have publicly backed the protest.

They have asked for their names to be removed from the list.

The Grand Prix is a highly prestigious prize, recognising the lifetime achievement of a cartoonist. It is handed out each year at the Angouleme International Comics Festival.

In its long history, only one woman, Florence Cestac, has ever won the prize.

A group called BD Egalite, or Women in Comics Collective Against Sexism, said the prize was significant, because as well as being honorary it could also boost an artist's career and book sales.

"What is the message sent to women cartoonists and those in the process of becoming such?" it asked on its website. "We are discouraged from having ambition, from continuing our efforts. How could we take it otherwise?

"It all comes back to the disastrous glass ceiling. We're tolerated, but never allowed top billing. Will we require women in comics to perpetually play second fiddle?"

A number of cartoonists on the long list have since asked for their names to be removed.

'Ridiculous, embarrassing'

American Daniel Clowes called it a now "totally meaningless 'honor'."

"What a ridiculous, embarrassing debacle," he added. 

Riad Sattouf on Facebook listed a number of female cartoonists he would "prefer to cede my place to", including Rumiko Takahashi, Julie Doucet, Anouk Ricard, Marjane Satrapi and Catherine Meurisse.

The Festival's Franck Bondoux was quoted in French media as saying that Franco-Belgian graphic novels, known as "bande desinee", had traditionally been dominated by men.

"The festival cannot distort this reality, although I concede that the list might contain one or two female names," he said. 

But he rejected accusations that the festival ignored the contribution of women artists, giving examples of steps it was taking to promote their work.

The Quenelle

Footballer Nicolas Anelka is at the centre of a row today for making the gesture shown above after scoring a goal for West Bromwich Albion. It is called "the quenelle", and is best-known as the trademark of a French comedian called Dieudonné M'Bala M'Bala. Anelka says that he made the quenelle in tribute to his friendship with Dieudonné. However, there are many in France who consider this gesture to be anti-Semitic, rather than anti-Zionist, as claimed by Dieudonné. The comedian has reportedly been convicted several times for anti-Semitic remarks, and the Independent article I just read portrays him as a man who:

"has transformed himself over the past decade from a talented comedian and campaigner against the far right to a talented comedian and purveyor of anti-Semitic remarks and conspiracy theories."

The rest of the article may be found here.

The French Interior Minister is now considering whether or not to ban this man from performing in public. Meanwhile, vigilante groups of young Jews have been arrested in Lyon for reacting violently to perceived use of the quenelle.

other links connected to this story:

Hope Not Hate - profile of Dieudonné by a blogger who is not sympathetic to his cause

Metro - shows a tweet by Anelka using a photo of Obama doing what Anelka claims is the quenelle

The Guardian suggests there may be a ban on Anelka in response to his quenelle. NB  this article notes that while Mamadou Sakho of Liverpool has also made the gesture, he claims that he was tricked and did not know what it meant!

The Telegraph leads with the French Sports Minister publishing a statement that this gesture was an "incitation to racial hatred and sickening."

Of course there are questions here about the boundaries between free speech and hate speech. My first question, however, is what was Anelka thinking? Surely he knew there would be a response. What, then, was behind his decision to make such a gesture?

(Just saw this by Philippe Auclair in the Mirror - casting much doubt on any claims of innocence by Anelka)

O, and I found the photograph of French soldiers supposedly on anti-terrorist duty & making the quenelle. Look where they appear to be standing. Could this be a genuine photograph?

31/12/13 Update

Dieudonne is reported as praising Anelka via Sky News

Official statement from West Bromwich Albion Football Club noting Anelka's agreement not to perform another quenelle in celebration of a goal for the team.

3/1/14 Postscript

Nothing from the Football Association re a ban ... yet ... we can only hope. Meanwhile, the Times Leader ends with

"Anelka has brought disgrace to himself and his club, which showed itself incapable of understanding the obligations of its players. By its dilatoriness and insouciance, the Football Association has compounded this offence against decency."

if you have a subscription, you can read the whole leader here.

A French Perspective on the Election

Under the headline of "Présidentielles : surprise ! c'est (encore) un homme !", mes amies at Le Blog d'une Chienne de Garde demonstrate their excitement at the news that Carla Bruni is rumoured to be on a flight to Los Angeles since her husband just lost the French Presidential election.

What? A translation? Hmmmmm ... the quote is something like "I'm not born a feminist, I am becoming one". As for what the testicles are saying, the Babylon translator online suggests "with the hair to the tabs and all" but I suspect that is not quite what the artist wishes to suggest. The headline, with my A for O-level French, I can reliably tell you it says, "Presidentially:  Surprise! It's (once more) a man!"

O well. Let's reserve judgment on the new Socialist President-elect of France:  Francois Hollande!

Women Priests - Why Not?

This is my blogfriend La Chienne de Garde's personal perspective on a recent poster campaign by the French Catholic Church. The Church hopes to convince young believers that it is cool to be a priest. More details from the Telegraph here.

Not the best time to be recruiting, methinks.

PS This is the original recruiting poster:

Colloquial French

I see from today's cartoon and via Google and some french translations that 'un macchabee' is slang for a stiff aka a dead body. How on earth did a word which to me represents a hero in battle (Judah Maccabee and the whole Chanukah story) come to mean this? It can also be used as bored stiff, i.e. to death. Any suggestions?

NB Here is an article about the closure of the Our Body exhibition in France

agincourt revisionism

for hundreds of years young english people have been told that if they must speak french, the only word that they need to know is 'agincourt'. this, of course, refers to the battle in the middle of the hundred years war (1415) in which the english trounced the french despite terrible odds. you may have heard of it if you remember any of shakespeare's 'henry v'.

anyway it appears that historians got it wrong, and the nasty english behaved like war criminals, or so say the french scholars who are meeting in the town of agincourt for a conference this week. according to the telegraph:

"Academics will suggest that the extent of the feat of arms was massively exaggerated, with claims that the English were hugely outnumbered a lie. More controversially still, they will say that the foreign invaders used numerous underhand tactics against an honourable enemy. These included burning prisoners to death and setting 40 bloodthirsty royal bodyguards on to a single Gallic nobleman who had surrendered."

the rest of the article is here. meanwhile, with regard to anglo-french relations, i can only use my other phrase: plus ca change.