Franco-Moroccan Author Slimani Warns of Rising Islamophobia in French Election Campaign

In an interview given this Thursday, February 3 to the newspaper Le Parisien, on the occasion of the release of the second volume of her work titled "The Country of Others", Leïla Slimani expressed her fears about the identity issue in France. "What worries me enormously is this idea that identity would be something fixed, given to you almost genetically, that you would be French because you have the right religion or the right skin color," she explains.

To read: Eric Zemmour Vows to Protect French Identity, Not Change Islam

The winner of the 2016 Goncourt Prize is also surprised by the rise of candidate Eric Zemmour in the polls and the "little reaction, anger" that his candidacy and the name of his party, Reconquest, arouse. "We still have a candidate whose party has a name that refers to the Reconquista, an enterprise of the 15th century which consisted in driving out a population, almost deporting it, unless it converted," Leila Slimani indignantly.

To read: Zemmour Urges French Muslims to ’Assimilate’, Sparking Controversy

And to add: "Pardon me, but, a France in which we could not have an abortion, where homosexuality was forbidden and where racist programs were broadcast on television, it does not really make me dream... I think a lot about the people we call Muslims in this country [...] and who are caught between this racist hatred and the Islamists. As if they were tearing our identity away from both sides."