Spotlight on France - Podcast: Sex abuse in the Catholic Church, Jihadism in French prisons, and De Gaulle's double resignation

Loading player...
As a French priest goes on trial for sexually abusing minors, one activist says the problem is widespread in France, and addressing it is a feminist issue. Also, how French prisons became laboratories for home-grown jihadism, which lead to the 2015/16 terrorist attacks. And, when Charles de Gaulle resigned from power, the first time.

The ex-Catholic priest Bernard Preynat is in court this week for sexually abusing boy scouts in the 1970s and 80s. Bishop Philippe Barbarin, Preynat's superior, was convicted of covering up the alleged crimes last year. We speak with  journalist Christine Pedotti (@PedottiC) about the French Catholic Church's systemic problem with sex abuse. For her, addressing the problem is a feminist issue. (Listen @3'28)

Even after the fall of the Islamic State 'caliphate' in Syria and Iraq, jihadism is being reconfigured in French prisons. Social sciences researcher Hugo Micheron (@MicheronH) spent five years doing fieldwork for his book Jihadisme français (French jihadism) interviewing some 80 convicted or suspected jihadists. He tells us about how jihadist ideology has developed in France over last 20 years. (Listen @13'24)

And, Charles de Gaulle, who saved France from the Nazis, resigned from power on 20 January 1946, for the first time. He did it again two decades later. We look at how the war hero gradually fell out of touch with contemporary France. (Listen @9'26)

Subscribe to the Spotlight on France podcast on iTunes (link here) or Google podcasts (link here).
16 Jan 2020 English South Africa News

Other recent episodes

Podcast: Adapting to heat, France's fitness boom, Paris Mosque at 100

As France's record-breaking heatwave last week raises questions about how the country will have to adapt to a warming climate, we look at what that could mean for French culture. We also explore the country's growing interest in fitness – driven in part by its most popular YouTuber – and…
2 Jul 27 min

Podcast: Grappling with legacies of slavery, French film industry crisis

How two people in the French port city of Nantes – one descended from slave owners, the other from enslaved people – are working together to "repair" the country's troubled history. The slave money that built the Élysée Palace, the French president's official residence. And turmoil in the French film industry…
21 May 32 min

Podcast: French raves, accent insecurity, birth of the Front Populaire

A crackdown on France's unauthorised raves threatens an outlet for young people. How regional accents in France can hold you back. And the Front Populaire, which laid the foundations of France's welfare state. The French government has vowed to crack down on unauthorised raves, known as "free parties", with a…
7 May 36 min