This episode is the first in what I hope to be a monthly series picking up apart one news story impacting France. And each time, I’ll be joined by my two friends Lauren Collins and Aida Alami. Lauren is a reporter for The New Yorker and the author of When in French: Love in a Second Language and Aida Alami is a journalist for The New York Times and NY Review of Books, among other outlets, and a filmmaker. Both have been guests on this show before. The idea emerged out of our Whatsapp group -- we’re constantly sharing our thoughts on what’s happening in the world, sometimes exclusively in emojis, but I thought that when it comes to Paris and issues influencing life and politics in France, we could go a bit deeper.

So what’s happening right now? After separatism, communautarisme, questioning whether Covid is masculine or feminine (it’s feminine apparently), there’s another obsession taking over the discussion in France: "tenue républicaine" or what is or isn’t clothing fit for the republic. What IS the correct form of dress. And is the state's obsession with the hijab part of a similar problem? We discuss.

Mentioned in this episode:

Background on the issue: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/09/france-women-dress-codes/?itid=ap_rokhayadiallo

Education minister's comments: https://www.franceinter.fr/societe/tenue-republicaine-pour-aller-a-l-ecole-jean-michel-blanquer-moque-sur-twitter

Obsession with the hijab: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/9/22/frances-decades-long-feud-over-the-hijab-takes-centre-stage

Macron's speech on separatism: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/macron-islam-france/2020/10/02/ba8a1dcc-04bc-11eb-b92e-029676f9ebec_story.html

Aida's story on Maryam Pougetoux: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/01/world/europe/maryam-pougetoux-islam-france.html

On Sibeth Ndiaye's clothes: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/02/style/sibeth-ndiaye-emmanuel-macron-france.html

Lauren Collins: https://twitter.com/laurenzcollins

Aida Alami: https://twitter.com/AidaAlami