“I was born, raised and lived in a Jehovah’s Witness family for forty-two years. In 2009, I left with my ten-year-old daughter. For many years, I didn’t see my parents, my brother or my son again. The experience left a deep impression on me.” Lucid and often funny despite the dilemmas she faces, Sophie Grimbert describes her inner struggle between the little soldier of God she was taught to be and the free woman she always dreamed of becoming. At a time when “new religions” are gaining gro...

"Dear Mr. Müller, A friend of my sister's advised me to write to you, saying that you could help me return to France. My father took my sister and me to Algeria and left us there against our will. He left, taking our identity cards and passports with him. I cannot live in Algeria. My dearest wish is to return to France and be reunited with my mother and little sister." Thirty years later, Patricia looks back on her painful past: the kidnapping, the three years of confinement in Algeria wit...

My name is Laura, I am 19 years old. I’m a student and I prostitute myself to pay for my studies. I’m not alone in this. It seems that many other students are doing the same thing. It all followed a strange logic, without me really realizing that I was falling. I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. I’ve never known luxury or ease, but until this year, I’ve never lacked for anything. My thirst for learning and my convictions always made me think that my student years would be the m...

Emmanuel Macron lands for the first time in Africa at the Barkhane base in Gao, Mali, on May 14, 2017. His determination is complete: “Operation Barkhane will only end the day there are no more Islamist terrorists in the region and the full sovereignty of the Sahel states is restored. Not before.” Seven years on, jihadists are on the rise, and the French army has been forced to leave Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad may follow… This debacle is not a military one, it’s a political one. W...

A student union recently estimated that “40,000 students are now prostitutes in France.” The primary cause is the growing precariousness and high cost of student life. This study, carried out in 2006-2007, is a vivid description of the novelty of this form of prostitution. It is practiced discreetly, occasionally, independently, via the Internet, mainly by young female students who call themselves “escorts.” The book’s findings are twofold. While student prostitution is first and foremost ...

The temple is packed. "It stinks in here," says the master in English. "You mustn't do any more prostrations, or else you'll have to open the windows." A tall, skinny steward discreetly points out that it's pouring rain, and that perhaps this isn't entirely appropriate. The master then grabs him by the hair and shakes him back and forth. "Who are you to judge? I'm your master, you're my slave. Ah, it may not be politically correct with you Westerners, but in Tibet it's like that. You have ...

On July 13, 2001, in Hassi Messaoud, an oil-rich town in southern Algeria, following virulent preaching by the imam, about 500 men assaulted and tortured some 50 women during a raid to inflict punishment. Public humiliation, family scorn, silence from the foreign press and fear of reprisals followed this nightmarish experience, which most of the victims chose to forget. But some women refused to forget and demanded that the culprits face punishment - Rahmouna Salah and Fatiha Maamoura foug...

At Terezín, many children sang for the Nazi officials and the Red Cross. They were used as propaganda tools, between 1943 and 1944, to make the world believe that Hitler had given a "paradise" to the Jews. Only around 100 of the 15,000 innocent people who passed through this transit camp survived. Ela Stein Weissberger, deported at the age of 11, is one of the few survivors. In Hans Krása's opera Brundibár (The Bumblebee) performed at the camp, she played the role of the Cat, the rebelliou...

"I am Mathilde, alias Mathilda. I am 37 years old and I prostitute myself to be a free woman. I have been an executive assistant, a sales manager in media, a communication manager for an employers' confederation and a company director in business aviation. But I was a precarious woman, being used for a low price, like a great majority of women in France. In parallel to my work activities, I became an escort to get out of my social condition and not be a free and disposable object anymore. ...

Delphine was 4 years old when her hell began. "We always promised each other, my Mom and I, that we would not talk about it anymore, that it was over. Except that after this promise, which I never broke, I had many bad times to go through. I was always trying to find out why I felt so bad about myself, why the fear of dying came over me again, as in childhood. I gradually became aware that this feeling of uneasiness probably came from the drifting in and out of hospitals that I had experie...

In 6,000 food products, aspartame is found everywhere in so-called diet nutrition. However, several scientific studies show that this sweetener is harmful for children, pregnant women and epileptics. Used to replace sugar and reduce the caloric intake of food, aspartame actually works in the opposite direction, it develops obesity and diabetes. In this first in-depth investigation of the diet industry, Henriette Chardak exposes a health scandal. She shows why the use of aspartame continues...

"I’ve heard it said that for alcoholics like me, there are only four possibilities: prison, the psychiatric ward, death or sobriety. I didn't go to jail, but did end up at the police station, in a drunk tank. The psychiatric hospital? I was there for a week, it was shocking. Death? I came close to it several times. I've come a long way, a very long way. But today I've come out of it and I'm totally clean." Drowning in Alcohol is the rare story of a young woman who had everything going for ...