French-Moroccan writer Leïla Slimani on feminism & freedom

What you'll learn

• 1 (00:00) **Introduction & Host’s Framing** - Terry Gross introduces Leïla Slimani as a major literary figure (Goncourt Prize winner, International Booker Prize chair) and sets up the family saga that anchors the trilogy.
• 2 (01:57) **Why a Trilogy: Doing Justice to a Mixed Identity** - Slimani explains that literature was the only way to “do justice” to people with complex, mixed-race identities.
• 3 (04:16) **The Burden of Dual Identity and Tribalism** - Slimani describes how being “double” forces constant questions of loyalty, and she warns against those who demand you choose a side.
• 4 (06:17) **The Family Contradiction: Freedom Inside, Silence Outside** - Slimani describes growing up in a liberal home bubble where free speech and equality were preached, but outside the door, everything had to be hidden.
• 5 (08:35) **The Danger of Stepping Out of Line: Father’s Imprisonment** - Slimani recounts how her powerful father was suddenly accused of stealing from a bank, stayed home for 14 years, and was later exonerated after his death.
• 6 (11:12) **Mother as a Model: The First Woman Doctor** - Slimani’s mother was one of Morocco’s first women doctors (an ENT specialist), and she treated rich and poor alike, seeing medicine as a moral duty.
• 7 (13:30) **Witnessing Women’s Inequality Outside the Home** - Slimani describes the “horrible” inequality she saw: women who couldn’t read, being told a café was “not for women,” and the legal rule that a woman’s testimony was worth half a man’s.

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