Open letter to my daughter who wants to wear the veil, Leïla Djitli, Sophie Troubac

Aïcha, an Algerian-born mother who fought for integration and freedom, addresses Nawel, her 17-year-old daughter, who has decided to wear the veil. It's an intimate letter, but it's also a cry because Aïcha is angry at the speeches that manipulate young people, at the public authorities who let them thrive, at the parents who give up, but also at herself for not having seen it coming. So, to dissuade her daughter, she addresses burning issues: identity, faith, relations between men and women, and independence. She doesn't resort to ready-made speeches, those of ideologues and politicians, but strives to reflect concretely on what the veil entails in a woman's life. A mother speaks to her daughter. This text, written in collaboration with Sophie Troubac, was conceived by journalist Leïla Djitli as a docu-fiction. It is based on what she patiently observed in a field she knows well, the suburbs, that she imagined this voice of a combative, convincing, and ultimately, moving mother – the voice of one woman speaking to another...