The leaders of the University of Chicago French Club fired back at a student who claimed the club’s event featuring a Charlie Hebdo journalist was not a “safe space” for critics of the satirical magazine.
In a letter to the editor of The Chicago Maroon, the leaders said that “freedom of speech does not mean safety from debate,” while noting that Zineb El Rhazoui answered every question from the 50 minutes of open Q&A at the event:
We reject the notion that the event failed to provide a safe space for any attendee to participate in the conversation, and somehow created uneven grounds for debate by inviting a speaker “in a relative position of power.” El Rhazoui is an immigrant, a woman, Arab, a human rights activist who has known exile, and a journalist living in very real fear of death. She was invited to speak precisely because her right to do so is, quite literally, under threat.
Security was incredibly tight at the event:
What more can event organizers do to ensure a “safe space” for productive conversation for all? If “safe space” means a demand to narrow our choice of speakers or restrict the diversity of views we bring to this campus because they risk making some of us uncomfortable, we politely decline.
Responding to student Xin Tang Yong’s letter earlier this week that criticized the audience for giving El Rhazoui a standing ovation after her allegedly “condescending” words, the French club leaders say:
El Rhazoui narrowly escaped a terrorist attack on January 7 that resulted in the deaths of 12 of her colleagues. A week prior to our event, El Rhazoui became the target of thousands of death threats disseminated by ISIS supporters via Twitter, announcing an obligation to kill El Rhazoui, detailing the best methods to kill her, and publishing her and her family’s addresses. As a result, El Rhazoui now lives with six bodyguards, and needs to give two hours’ notice if she wants to leave her apartment to buy bread. To choose to travel to Chicago and speak publicly required a tremendous amount of courage on her part. It was this display of bravery that prompted a standing ovation at the conclusion of her talk, and it is this bravery that deserves applause, regardless of whether or not we agree with what El Rhazoui says.
They go into much more detail specifically disputing Yong’s characterization of the event.
Read the French club letter and the Maroon‘s original event coverage.
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