An art teacher in France has been left fearing for her life after showing a 17th-century Renaissance painting depicting nude women to students in art class, prompting complaints from Muslim parents. ‘Diana and Actaeon’ by Italian painter Giuseppe Cesari depicts a Greek mythology story in which the hunter Actaeon bursts in on the goddess Diana and her nymphs bathing, naked and is housed at the Louvre in Paris.
Following the art class, false posts on social media claimed that the teacher had made racist remarks, fuelling the backlash.
Other teachers at Jacques Cartier in Issou, west of Paris, refused to work on Monday in solidarity with their colleague.
READ MORE: The pretty little village among world’s prettiest ‘about to fall off a cliff’
Sophie Venetitay, secretary general of the Snes-FSU secondary school teachers’ union said: “During a French class, a colleague showed a 17th-century painting that showed naked women.
“We know well that methods like that can lead to a tragedy… We saw it in the murder of Samuel Paty.
“Our colleagues feel threatened and in danger.”
She added: “Some students averted their gaze, felt offended, said they were shocked.”
Don’t miss…
Europe’s largest naturist camp plots to oust French mayor in furious row[INSIGHT]
French woman facing deportation after 42 years in UK as email went to ‘junk'[REPORT]
UK’s new post-Brexit rule so French kids don’t need passports to come to Britain[ANALYSIS]
The current tensions are the result of a recent string of assaults on teachers.
Samuel Paty was tragically killed in 2020 as a result of social media messages claiming that he had shown his class cartoons of Prophet Mohammed from the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
In addition, another radicalised Islamist fatally stabbed his former teacher, Dominique Bernard, in the northern town of Arras in October.
- Support fearless journalism
- Read The Daily Express online, advert free
- Get super-fast page loading
Source: Read Full Article