Samuel Mayol is a lecturer at the Sorbonne Paris Nord University and former director of the IUT of Saint Denis. He received the National Secularism Prize in 2015.
Mayol: The university is today a breeding ground for communitarian excesses and attempts to impose dress or behavioral codes in the name of certain religious traditions. The 2004 law prohibiting the wearing of religious symbols in educational establishments does not apply to universities, he says. He is the author of the essay: Secularism, the Republic until the end (2023, editions L'Harmattan), and of a book on the history of secularism in France, published by Simon & Schuster, to be published next year. For more information, visit www.sorbonne-paris-nord.com. For confidential support call the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90 or visit a local Samaritans branch, see www.samaritans.org for details. In the U.S. call the National Suicide Prevention Line on 1-800-273-8255.