Fordham Community Witnesses Attacks in France

By Cailin McKenna

Jennifer Shekerchi, FCLC ’16, was in her Paris apartment late last Friday evening when she received an alert that there had been a shooting nearby. After she notified her family that she was safe, she turned on the local news to find out more about the events transpiring outside her door. “Despite the news not having the full details yet, I knew it had been a terrorist attack,” she said. “I stood by my computer refreshing the news every five minutes only to find out more and more people had been killed in multiple shootings and explosions.”

Like Shekerchi, many Parisians, visitors and students studying in Paris were shocked and distraught by the attacks that occurred in a total of six locations across the French capital, leaving 129 dead and more than 350 injured, according to The New York Times.

French President Francois Hollande declared a state of emergency on Friday evening and said “France is at war” as a manhunt began in the days that followed across Europe in search of the perpetrators.

Fordham currently has nine students abroad in France, many of whom are studying in the nation’s capital city. Fordham’s International and Study Abroad Programs (ISAP) contacted service providers and host universities to confirm the safety of all university students abroad in the area.

On Friday evening, Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of the university, sent an email to the university community stating that all nine Fordham students studying abroad in France were accounted for and safe, as well as the nine students travelling in France’s neighboring country of Belgium.

Fordham has continued to track the situation, including other threats made across Europe to ensure the safety of its students studying and living in the area. “We are all monitoring the situation in Europe very closely and receive safety updates daily from the U.S. State Department’s Overseas Security Advisory Council and from the Drum-Cussac risk management firm,” said Dr. Joseph Rienti, director of ISAP. “Yesterday, staff in my office and other university administrators participated in a conference call conducted by Drum-Cussac on the situation in Paris. Based on these reports, we do not anticipate suspending or altering programming in France or any other parts of Europe.”

McShane also informed students abroad of the resources available to them including Dr. Andrew Clark, chair of the department of Modern Languages and literatures and associate professor of French and comparative literature, who was in Paris at the time of the attacks.

Last week, Clark travelled to Paris to complete a site review for a study abroad program. He was in the apartment of a colleague finalizing the review when he first started to get phone calls from the United States. After ignoring several calls, he received one from a friend of a friend who would not have normally called him. He decided to answer the call and was quickly informed about the recent attacks taking place across Paris. “We turned on the television and eventually stuff starting coming through,” he said. “The French press reported a bit later than the English and American press because they were obviously concerned about causing pandemonium.”

Across the city, Anelisa Arevalo, a former Fordham student who is finishing her degree at the American University of Paris, had just arrived at the Gare de Lyon when her phone was overcome with messages and phone calls alarming her about the events. She and her mother boarded the metro, which passed stops such as Republique and Oberkampf, where the Bataclan Theater, one of the sites of the attack, is located. “When we got home, the news had started to circulate more and I started getting phone calls and messages from family and friends abroad,” she said. “We just kept looking at the news and talking to my friends who also live in Paris to get a better grip on what was going on.”

On Sunday evening, Arevalo and her mother were walking in the Marais district of Paris when a taxi driver drove by them and warned of a gunshot nearby. Chaos ensued as pedestrians began to flee the area. Arevalo and her mother hid while pressed against the walls of a tall building on a small side street.

A few moments later, after several police officers arrived on the scene, Arevalo and her mother decided to take a bus in the opposite direction of the main avenue back to her apartment. While on the bus, Arevalo heard police officers yelling for pedestrians to seek shelter. “We could see more people running in different directions and it was pretty clear that no one really understood what was really going on or where they should be headed,” she said.

She later discovered that there had been two false alarms at Republique and in Marais. Someone had set off a firecracker near the vigil at Republique and a lightbulb had exploded at a restaurant in the Marais which caused people to panic. “Once the police had figured out that it was a false alarm people started flooding back into Republique to recommence the vigil,” said Arevalo.

Neither Arevalo nor Clark were shocked when the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks the following day. Many Parisians and visitors initially suspected the terrorist group following the attacks.
“Whether it’s ISIS or someone else, the effect is more or less the same; it breeds terror and difficult and unfortunate responses both from the right and the left in regards to how to deal with the situation and who’s responsible,” Clark said. “This idea that at any moment someone can open fire and destroy people going about their daily lives. The idea that this might become the new norm is rather frightening for everyone.”

Elizabeth Zanghi, FCRH ’15, was visiting with friends in the 13th arrondisement, a distance from the six locations of attacks. Her initial response was that there had been a shooting in the area. “We turned on the news, and it became clear that it wasn’t just a shooting. They kept showing a map of Paris, and every 15 minutes or so, there was a new dot on the map, showing a new attack,” she said. “The news of hostages made everything scarier, because it was clear it wasn’t going to be over any time soon.”

Zanghi was in Paris last January during the Charlie Hebdo attack in which a group of Islamic extremists shot and killed 10 journalists of the French satirical magazine for its artistic depictions of the Prophet Muhammad. The Hebdo attack prompted an international cry for freedom of the press through campaigns like “Je suis Charlie.”

“Since the 17th century, the freedom of the press has been a symbol of unity for the French people and the terrorism against journalists has created a melange of sadness, anger and revolt among the French,” she wrote in an article for The Fordham Ram.

The biggest shock for Zanghi was the randomness of Friday’s target. “With Charlie [Hebdo], the terrorists were targeting journalists physically and freedom of the press ideologically. What were the terrorists targeting on Friday?” she asked. “To me, it seems like they were targeting a way of life, and specifically a way of life that is normal to a lot, if not most, of the Parisian community.”

In the days following the attack, the streets of Paris were mostly empty and there was an increased military and security presence around national monuments and public buildings. “The Louvre area was completely empty, the Louvre and many other place were closed. Most of Paris was pretty quiet,” said Clark.

France’s iconic Eiffel Tower was closed for security reasons following the attacks. It reopened on Monday afternoon, and was lit up in the colors of the French flag. Other monuments around the world showcased their support for the victims of the Paris attack including the Empire State Building, One World Trade Center and the Sydney Opera House, which were lit up with the French tri-color.

These acts of support have also garnered criticism as the same media coverage was not provided to victims of an ISIS-coordinated attack in Beirut a day earlier. The attack claimed the lives of nearly 43 individuals and has received little recognition from the international community and western media.

For the victims of the Beirut attack, there were no monuments lit up in the colors of the Lebanese flag. Facebook provided users with the opportunity to overlay their profile pictures with the French flag, but not the Lebanese flag. The website also activated the Safety Check feature – which has historically been used in times of natural disaster, according to The New York Times –  for the Paris attack, but not for the Beirut attack.

“It is deeply sad that the world places a different value on human life depending on where you are from,” said Clark. “There is an alienation and separation that people in the West have from the Middle East and their inability to understand that people are just trying to live their daily lives.”

In both Beirut and Paris, individuals have come to the aid of their neighbors by giving blood and providing refuge. “These acts of humanity are beautiful in situations like that, but what always upsets me is that we rely on tragedy to show such great acts of humanity,” Clark said. “The care for others always comes after there is a break in that security.”

As the Eiffel Tower reopens, and Parisians oncemore take to their seats in outdoor cafes, it is evident that for both Paris and Beirut life goes on even with the terror that struck last week. Ellen Hinkley, FCRH ’17, who is studying in Paris noted how Parisians have fallen back into their daily routines. “I think international media, particularly American news, [have] falsely painted Paris as a city that cowers under a darkened Eiffel Tower,” she said. “That could not be farther from the truth; yes, there is a heaviness in the air that did not exist before, and yet, life continues.”

On Monday, Paris held a minute of silence to commemorate the lives lost and the people affected by these loses. However, the solidarity and la fraternite, persists. “The city of Paris’ motto is fluctuate nec mergitu, [translated as] ‘tossed by the waves, but does not sink,’” said Hinkley.