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GoetheInstitute

06/12/2005

French Riots Special

All eyes have been fixed on the rioting in France in recent weeks and as many theories have been spun as to the causes. We've collected together some of the most important voices from around the world and four related feature articles.

Voices on the French riots

Read a selection of the most important opinions from round the world as featured in In Today's Feuilletons and our Magazine Roundup.
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So long, Marianne
The riots in the French suburbs are taking place in an atmosphere rife with male violence where girls and women live in fear. If we really want to address the problem of burning cars, then we must also tackle the problem of burning girls. By Alice Schwarzer
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Integration through negation
For French philosopher Andre Glucksmann the rioting is an expression of hatred. You can blame socio-economic conditions, he says, but you won't get to the root of the problem until you look this hatred in the eye.
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The price of disdain
French author Francois Bon has spent years giving writing workshops to youths in the suburbs that are now being set ablaze. He looks critically at where the violence originated and with despair at where it's headed.
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Neither whores nor submissive
In the fractured suburbs of France, young Muslim men are increasingly acting as the guardians of public morals. Girls who don't conform to Islamic behavioural codes are threatened with rape or death. Fadela Amara's organisation "Ni putes ni soumises" ("neither whores nor submissive") is fighting back.By Rebecca Hillauer
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More articles

Herta Müller recommends Liu Xiaobo for Nobel Peace Prize

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In a letter to the Nobel Foundation, Herta Müller expresses her support for the nomination of Liu Xiaobo for the Nobel Peace Prize, "because in the face of countless threats from the Chinese regime and great risk to his life, he has fought unerringly for the freedom of the individual."
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Citizen journalism in Iran

Monday 11 January, 2010

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Minaret and swastika

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photo:hewy
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The 'execution' of a young Kurd

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On November 11, Ehsan Fattahian, a 28-year old Kurdish freedom fighter, was dealt 'sudden death' in a prison in the Kurdish province of Iran. Nobody was present at the execution and no medical certificate was released. The same fate has befallen any number of demonstrators who took part in the protests after the elections, and lays ahead for 12 other political prisoners in jails throughout Iran. By Ahmad Eskandari
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Jolly eschatology

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Securitate in all but name

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UPDATE: Herta Müller wins the Nobel Prize for Literature 2009. Twenty years after Ceausescu's execution, his secret service is still active - only its name has changed. Secret files are being manipulated; shadowing and smear campaigns continue. For the first time, Romanian-born German writer Herta Müller describes her long history of Securitate persecution, uncertain of how much she has yet to endure.
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The future of Iranian feminism

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Shadi Sadr, an Iranian feminist and human rights activist working as a lawyer and journalist, was released on bail from Tehran's Evin prison last Tuesday. Haideh Daragahi looks at an article written by Sadr, which may have triggered her arrest. It is a blueprint for the future of the Iranian women's movement and how it should relate to the new movement for change that is rocking Iran.
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The dream of an apocalypticist

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In a footnote to his latest book, Timothy Garton Ash distances himself from the term "Enlightenment fundamentalism", which he had used in reference to Ayaan Hirsi Ali. John Gray picked up on the ammendment immediately and took him to task in The New Statesman. Perlentaucher editor Thierry Chervel is baffled by Gray's twisted pessimism.
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"I wanted to fly away"

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Alham Abrahimnejad is a women's rights activist who fled Iran two years ago and now lives in Berlin. She talks to Waltraud Schwab about her fear of being sent back home, the soul of the Iranian protest and her lack of freedom in Germany.
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Gentrification follies

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Politicians are turning Istanbul's year as European Cultural Capital 2010 into a programme for promoting real estate and tourism. By Dragan Klaic
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Haider in their hearts

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Submission in advance

Monday 16 February, 2009

TeaserPicThe fatwa against British Indian author Salman Rushdie was issued 20 years ago. Today, says Thierry Chervel, Islamism has the West more firmly in its grip than ever before – thanks to our left-wing intellectuals.
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The pornography of horror

Wednesday January 14, 2009

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Life after bankruptcy

Wednesday 26 November, 2008

TeaserPicThe age of privatisation is over. Politics not the market is responsible for promoting the common good. Philosopher Jürgen Habermas talks to Thomas Assheuer about the necessity of an international world order. (Photo: Wolfram Huke)
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In Moscow traffic with Walter Benjamin

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Dragan Klaic was in Moscow to run a theatre workshop. He was overwhelmed by the sense of impending financial disaster and nearly missed his plane home.
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