Whether we like her or not, Rachida Dati undeniably remains an example of what social advancement can produce. The Minister of Culture and candidate for mayor of Paris nevertheless had some serious pitfalls on her path…
At 60, Rachida Dati intends to continue her path by landing a position that she has coveted for a long time: mayor of Paris! The one who is already mayor of the chic 7th arrondissement of the capital, has held several positions during her political career and can pride herself on having run her boat well. But it was not a foregone conclusion, quite the contrary! When she was younger, Rachida Dati dealt with her family environment, which was not easy…
Rachida Dati born into a family of 11 children: “At times, we want to be an only child”
The right-wing candidate for the municipal elections in Paris, currently ranked 2nd in the polls between 26% and 28% behind Emmanuel Grégoire for the PS and its allies, returned to her youth and her modest origins in Legendby Guillaume Pley. The youngest of a family of eleven children, she is the daughter of a stay-at-home mother and a Muslim mason, who nevertheless wanted her children to attend a private Catholic school.
“What’s it like at the table?”the host asked her, to look back on her memories of being a young girl. To which the main person concerned responded amusedly: “There’s no table!” And Rachida Dati details her childhood a little: “We don’t have much of a gap (she was born in 1965, editor’s note). There is one child per year. And mom lost quite a few children, she was pregnant almost all her life (…) At times, it’s very pleasant to have lots of brothers and sisters, and at times you want to be an only child (…) There’s always movement but, contrary to what you might imagine, it’s still very organized.”
Was Rachida Dati ashamed of her family? “It was a leaden screed”
Zohra’s mother, born in 2009, had an education “more strict than elsewhere” but who “totally suitable”. “It was very strict, I was often punished even though I was first in my class”she added. A status which allowed him to very quickly “take the lead” on his family. “My older sister (Malika Dati, herself involved in politics, editor’s note) got married very young, she got married at 17 and a half years old, with my cousin by the way, and she went back to Morocco (…) So I took on the role of leading the family a little bit for studies, school, filling out papers because I had parents who didn’t know how to read or write.”
Questioned about her great discretion regarding her family, the former Minister of Justice and professional magistrate declared: “It’s not that I was ashamed but I said to myself, in France, we like labels, statuses and I feared that my original social condition, my family, could be a handicap in my success or in accessing positions of responsibility. It wasn’t a glass ceiling that we could know, it was a screed of lead.” Renowned for being a bulldozer in politics, Rachida Dati has since shattered her glass ceiling. A journey soon to be crowned by a victory in Paris? Answer next March.
