French press review 21 August 2012

Villagers in Afghanistan rise up against the Taliban. A disabled girl in Pakistan has provoked the wrath of religious extremists for tearing pages out of the Koran. And a building site with a difference is accepting applications from people who are interested in building a castle.

In the international section of Liberation there is a fascinating piece by their correspondent in Afghanistan about fighting between villagers and the Taliban.

“The anti-insurgent revolts have multiplied since the beginning of the year in the east and the centre of the country,” according to the reporter who travelled to some of the villages that are refusing to tolerate the Taliban any longer. “We can’t bear the tyranny anymore and the oppression of the Taliban,” one of the community leaders told the reporter.

According to the report, the population is angry at the Taliban because they want to impose Islamic law, or Sharia, attack schools and create insecurity.

The reporter is pessimistic about the outcome of this wave of anti-Taliban sentiment. He calls the current struggle “the last chance movement” and considers that after the retreat of the coalition forces in 2014 the Taliban will definitely take over the country.

There is a heartbreaking piece from Le Figaro’s Pakistan correspondent. It tells the story of an 11 year old girl with down syndrome who is accused of having burned pages from the Koran. Incidentally, the girl’s parents are part of the Christian minority.

The fact that she is handicapped and illiterate did not prevent a call from local mosque’s loudspeakers to protest the alleged blasphemy. Almost a thousand protesters turned out in the heart of Islamabad to ask for punishment of the handicapped girl, says the paper.
And since blasphemy is a crime punishable by death, the girl is now facing trial and, possibly, the ultimate sentence, says the article.

“What if you built a castle?” asks the popular Aujourd’hui en France. On its culture pages, the daily publishes an incredible story of building a real medieval castle from scratch in the Yonne, a Burgundy region in Eastern France.

The piece says that for the last 15 years, a group of professional and amateur builders have united their forces to construct a medieval castle. The building site is open to visitors who can, for a few hours or a few days, take part in the castle’s construction.

Even though the construction workers volunteer to work on the site, they are carefully selected after having sent a cover letter to a management committee. “I love architecture, history and archaeology, the journalist hears from one of the candidates, Emilio, whose regular job is an accountant.

The site attracts 3,000 visitors every day. And this unusual tourism attraction should stay open to visitors for quite a while, since the end of the construction is planned in 15 years!

So, regardless of whether you are a doctor, a scientist a teacher or a parent, next time you book your holidays in France, don’t forget to include in it spending a few days building an authentic medieval castle in Europe.