A nude painting sparks protest among 11-year-old students – because of their faith. A scandal in the Polish parliament: right-wing MP extinguishes Hanukkah menorah with fire extinguisher

‘Diana and Acteon’ by Giuseppe Cesari is a Renaissance painting, like the dozens hanging in the Louvre – somewhat outdated, but a ‘jewel’ for fans of Greek mythology, as the Parisian museum itself says.

In the ancient scene, based on Ovid, you can see the hunter Acteon surprising the goddess Diana and her servants while they are skinny-dipping. Furious, she turns the intruder into a deer, which is mauled by its own dogs. An image with a symbolic character and, on closer inspection, not an old ‘ham’, but actually quite useful for a MeToo debate at school.

But a handful of students didn’t want to look when a teacher from the Jacques-Cartier school in the Paris suburb of Issou presented the painting in class. According to her, the eleven-year-old students looked away indignantly or closed their eyes. These young representatives of the Islamic faith claimed that so much nudity contradicted their view of modesty and was “contrary to their religious beliefs.” “They said they were shocked,” a representative of the French teachers union Snes later reported.

Parallels with the Samuel Paty case

That same evening, affected parents gathered in front of the school building. They accused the teacher of previously exposing Muslim students and making racist and Islamophobic statements. She deliberately asked one of these students about the painting against his will. However, she ignored other students who wanted to comment.

The case made waves across the country last weekend, with the parents’ reaction to some extent reminiscent of the Samuel Paty case. The history teacher was murdered and beheaded in 2020 by an Islamist in the municipality of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine – less than thirty kilometers from Issou – after discussing cartoons of Mohammed in class.

A student had previously reported that Paty had denigrated Islam and thrown her out. Her father was abusive to Paty, which also motivated the killer. But the girl’s claims turned out to be false, as evidenced by the recent trial of the accomplices lured with money.

Tense school activities

At the Collège Jacques-Cartier in Issou, attended by 607 students, the teachers immediately supported their colleague. In a letter they report on ‘slander, slander and increasingly frequent and serious violations of secularism’, that is, of religious neutrality in public institutions and schools. Since September, sixteen violations have been reported at school, mainly by aggressive parents. School activities are tense and quiet teaching is almost impossible.

The responsible school academy in Versailles subsequently announced that the students had withdrawn their accusations against the teacher and apologized. Education Minister Gabriel Attal announced that he was still initiating disciplinary proceedings against the students. He made a very demonstrative visit to the secondary school in Issou. Education in France is strictly secular and non-negotiable, he said, adding somewhat awkwardly: “I will never accept people in the republican school refusing to look at a painting.”

Increase in attacks on teaching staff

The fact that the government responded so quickly can also be explained by the current parliamentary debate on a new immigration law in Paris. The trend is clearly moving towards worsening after three people were recently killed in knife attacks. The first struck a teacher in the northern French city of Arras in October. The Muslim perpetrator is in custody. On Wednesday, a 12-year-old threatened an English teacher with a long knife in class over a confiscated cell phone.

The teachers’ association Snes has been sounding the alarm for some time about the increase in attacks on educational staff. He does not want to overestimate the religious component in incidents like those in Issou and does not rule out adolescent and other influences. In general, however, the association expresses its concern about the increasing efforts of many teachers to make the principle of secularism understandable to young students.

Conservative commentator Elisabeth Lévy complains that many high school students no longer even understand the symbolism of Greek mythology. Acteon’s punishment according to Ovid’s Metamorphoses should, as Lévy believes, “please the prudish of all denominations”. (aargauerzeitung.ch)