On 16 October 2020, Samuel Paty, a history and geography teacher, was murdered outside his school in Conflans Saint Honorine (France). His killer claimed to be punishing him for ‘daring’ to show caricatures of his prophet in order to teach his pupils about freedom of expression.
Samuel Paty endured a veritable ordeal in his final days. He was terrorised by the death threats he received, falsely accused by a student who was not in class on the day of the infamous lesson and by the student’s father, who called for him to be punished on social media. He was abandoned by his superiors and most of his colleagues, who turned their backs on him as if he were guilty… of wanting to do his job, of wanting to help his pupils progress, of encouraging them to think for themselves and use their critical faculties.
On 13 October 2023, in Arras, the professor of literature Dominique Bernard was murdered by another Islamist fanatic.
On this day, 16 October 2025, secularist associations pay tribute to these two teachers who found themselves alone in their fight against fanatical murderers.
We, as members of secularist associations, must support teachers so that they never again find themselves alone in front of obscurantists. We must continue what we are doing today: going into classrooms, talking to pupils about freedom, equality and secularism – a common good that they are fortunate to share in Europe but which is so rare in today’s world.
EGALE has done its part by running workshops in secondary schools, in conjunction with the Île-de-France Region, on the ‘Caricatures and Democracy’ project designed by Charlie Hebdo cartoonists. We will resume these activities at the beginning of next year and hope that other regions will do the same.
We owe it to today’s pupils, tomorrow’s citizens, and also to the memory of Samuel Paty and Dominique Bernard.
Martine Cerf
EGALE Vice-president
