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| Art of diplomacy: how French schools abroad cope with censorship | Art of diplomacy: how French schools abroad cope with censorship |
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| It is one of the great allegorical paintings celebrating the French revolution: Liberty Leading the People, by Eugène Delacroix, shows a barefoot, bare-breasted woman – representing Marianne, the female symbol of the republic – brandishing a tricolour in one hand and a bayonetted musket in the other, leading the people over the bodies of the fallen. | It is one of the great allegorical paintings celebrating the French revolution: Liberty Leading the People, by Eugène Delacroix, shows a barefoot, bare-breasted woman – representing Marianne, the female symbol of the republic – brandishing a tricolour in one hand and a bayonetted musket in the other, leading the people over the bodies of the fallen. |
| Pupils at the French Lycée in Kuwait, however, might be forgiven for missing the symbolism of the celebrated work of art used to illustrate their history books after local censors slapped a large red sticker over the robust goddess Liberty. | Pupils at the French Lycée in Kuwait, however, might be forgiven for missing the symbolism of the celebrated work of art used to illustrate their history books after local censors slapped a large red sticker over the robust goddess Liberty. |
| A few pages on, another allegorical revolutionary painting, La Vérité Amène la République et l’Abondance (Truth Bringing the Republic and Abundance) by Nicolas de Courteille, has been given a similar dressing down – or dressing up – with another judiciously placed sticker. | A few pages on, another allegorical revolutionary painting, La Vérité Amène la République et l’Abondance (Truth Bringing the Republic and Abundance) by Nicolas de Courteille, has been given a similar dressing down – or dressing up – with another judiciously placed sticker. |
| Pupils opening their science books to the chapter, “transformations linked to puberty” and “how the female reproductive organs work” will find the human bodies crudely effaced with a black felt-tipped pen and illustrations of reproducing animals scribbled over. Drawings of the male anatomy have not been defaced, though. | Pupils opening their science books to the chapter, “transformations linked to puberty” and “how the female reproductive organs work” will find the human bodies crudely effaced with a black felt-tipped pen and illustrations of reproducing animals scribbled over. Drawings of the male anatomy have not been defaced, though. |
| France’s ministry of education, which is responsible for ensuring all schools study the same approved list of text books, insisted there was nothing it could do. “All French establishments abroad are subject to the laws of the countries in which they are established, unlike embassies and consulates, “ a spokesperson told Le Monde. | France’s ministry of education, which is responsible for ensuring all schools study the same approved list of text books, insisted there was nothing it could do. “All French establishments abroad are subject to the laws of the countries in which they are established, unlike embassies and consulates, “ a spokesperson told Le Monde. |
| “Obviously they have to work with the social and political reality of each country. There’s no obligation to use the textbooks that are just there to support the work of the teachers.” The wielders of the black pens came from somewhere within the ministry of education in Kuwait City, the paper said. | “Obviously they have to work with the social and political reality of each country. There’s no obligation to use the textbooks that are just there to support the work of the teachers.” The wielders of the black pens came from somewhere within the ministry of education in Kuwait City, the paper said. |
| The French Lycée in Kuwait City opened in 1988 and has 1,350 pupils, about 13% of them French, and the rest either local children or the children of expats of various nationalities. It is a private school that comes under the foreign and education ministries in Paris and is regarded as an official “partner establishment”. | The French Lycée in Kuwait City opened in 1988 and has 1,350 pupils, about 13% of them French, and the rest either local children or the children of expats of various nationalities. It is a private school that comes under the foreign and education ministries in Paris and is regarded as an official “partner establishment”. |
| Under article 2 of French regulations, such educational establishments must offer teaching “similar to that offered in France in a state school”. However, the lycée’s internal regulations clearly state it is subject to Kuwaiti law. | Under article 2 of French regulations, such educational establishments must offer teaching “similar to that offered in France in a state school”. However, the lycée’s internal regulations clearly state it is subject to Kuwaiti law. |
| Peter Gumbel, a writer on education and a professor at Paris’s prestigious Institut d’etudes Politiques, known as Sciences Po, admitted the censorship was surprising in the wake of the rush to uphold republican values after the January attacks on Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a Jewish supermarket in Paris. | Peter Gumbel, a writer on education and a professor at Paris’s prestigious Institut d’etudes Politiques, known as Sciences Po, admitted the censorship was surprising in the wake of the rush to uphold republican values after the January attacks on Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a Jewish supermarket in Paris. |
| However, he said it was part of France’s realpolitik approach to foreign policy. “The French do this kind of soft diplomacy through schools and culture very well. It’s a grotesque irony that after Charlie Hebdo and the defiant call for repbulican values and standing up for freedom, but it’s a classic clash of different interests and the foreign office has clearly won this battle.” | However, he said it was part of France’s realpolitik approach to foreign policy. “The French do this kind of soft diplomacy through schools and culture very well. It’s a grotesque irony that after Charlie Hebdo and the defiant call for repbulican values and standing up for freedom, but it’s a classic clash of different interests and the foreign office has clearly won this battle.” |
| Delacroix’s painting, which hangs in the Louvre, is credited with influencing Victor Hugo’s novel Les Misérables and inspiring the Statue of Liberty, a gift from the French to New York. | |
| The Louvre, which is due to open a €500m (£362m) museum in the United Arab Emirates capital, Abu Dhabi, in December, is expected to face similar problems from the country’s conservative authorities. | |
| Related: Foreign artists still find French inspiration | Related: Foreign artists still find French inspiration |
| However, museum officials insist the UAE has not censored any nudity or religious symbolism in the works going on display. These include a Jewish Torah from Yemen, an ancient Hindu statue, a Buddha and works evoking African animism, according to art experts. “No work has been refused,” a source told AFP | |
| Sophie Grange, a spokeswoman for the Louvre, insisted the Abu Dhabi museum was not simply a branch of the French museum but independent and it was up to the UAE to decide what was put on display. | |
| Titian’s fully-clothed but voluptuous Woman with a Mirror will be among the paintings sent to Abu Dhabi from the Paris Louvre. The emirati museum has also acquired an unseen portrait by Pablo Picasso called Portrait of a Lady, that is unlikely to raise any embarrassed eyebrows. | Titian’s fully-clothed but voluptuous Woman with a Mirror will be among the paintings sent to Abu Dhabi from the Paris Louvre. The emirati museum has also acquired an unseen portrait by Pablo Picasso called Portrait of a Lady, that is unlikely to raise any embarrassed eyebrows. |
| Art and the censors: recent battles | Art and the censors: recent battles |
| In September last year, the UN criticised the US for “widespread censorship” in prisons and schools, revealing that books containing the work of Cézanne, Picasso and Van Gogh, among many others, are banned from Texan state prisons for containing “sexually explicit images”. | |
| In May, a local Fox news station in the US was accused of being ”sexually sick” by art critics after blurring the breasts in Pablo Picasso’s cubist painting Women of Algiers, when reporting its record-breaking sale. | In May, a local Fox news station in the US was accused of being ”sexually sick” by art critics after blurring the breasts in Pablo Picasso’s cubist painting Women of Algiers, when reporting its record-breaking sale. |
| Also in May, western authors were warned about the censorship of politically and sexuality sensitive subjects in Chinese translations of their work, with the Pen American Centre reporting that many of the expurgations currently occur without the author’s knowledge. | Also in May, western authors were warned about the censorship of politically and sexuality sensitive subjects in Chinese translations of their work, with the Pen American Centre reporting that many of the expurgations currently occur without the author’s knowledge. |