Popular Culture Review 30.1
contemporary themes in France , but with some new twists . For example , in addition to gender , race , and class , religious differences were included in many songs . Perhaps , the most famous track from this album is “ Lili ,” a song that discusses the organization of female immigrants and Muslim women in French society :
France for me is nothing but a very large hospital ,
I spend my life in isolation since they told me I ' m wrong sick ( e . g . negative media coverage )
I do not deserve that because they kept me from my studies , from my education
This ( i . e . France ) is not a secular nation , it is one that fears getting ill ( ... )
So , because I am a converted woman , and I wear the veil .
This song confronts the Islamophobia that divides France , a fact that Diam ’ s labels as societal “ illness .” Kokoreff argues that youths of color in France ( and Muslims in particular ) have few prospects of success , and thus are condemned to fail by the system . In other words , Diam ’ s raps that this type of societal exclusion is contributing to a social separation in France , a country that is becoming sick . This deepening dichotomy is dividing French society in many ways , with both sides adopting increasingly hard attitudes when compared to the other . In recent years ( and especially since 2015 ), that sort of divisiveness has been exploited as a recruiting tool by international organizations that promote terror against State institutions as a means to an end ( as shown in the recent attacks on the periodical Charlie Hebdo and the terrorist at-
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