Elsa Jeanne Cayat (; Qui sont les victimes de Charlie Hebdo?, BMFTV 9 March 1960 – 7 January 2015) was a French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst and a columnist for the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris, France. She was one of 12 victims of the Charlie Hebdo shooting and was killed along with the seven journalists, maintenance worker, one visitor and two police officers. She was the only woman working for Charlie Hebdo to die in the attack. She was one of two Jews killed in the attack, along with Georges Wolinski.
Elsa Cayat was a companion of Paulus Bolten, a shoe designer, and the couple had one daughter, Hortense.
Cayat was 54 years old when she was murdered in Paris, France, on 7 January 2015. She was buried in the Jewish section of the Montparnasse Cemetery.
She qualified as a doctor at 21, and later practiced as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in Paris. She published books related to psychology. Her first book was published in 1998, A Man + A Woman = What? In 2007, she published her second book Desire and the Whore: The Hidden Stakes of Male Sexuality. Cayat also helped write chapters in the books Mastering Life and Dangerous Childhood, Childhood in Danger?
Cayat wrote the biweekly column Charlie Divan ( Charlie on the Couch) in the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. Cayat believed that she could help people find meaning in their personal life and emotional difficulties through her column in Charlie Hebdo.
Since the satirical Charlie Hebdo had been printing cartoons about the Prophet Mohammed, it had become a target for Islamic terrorists. On 7 January 2015, brothers Saïd Kouachi, 34, and Chérif Kouachi, 32, opened fire in the Charlie Hebdo offices. The attackers were believed to be a part of an Iraqi jihadist network. The two gunmen came into an editorial meeting, killing Elsa Cayat along with several others. The attackers used automatic rifles killing twelve people. After they killed those who were on their list, they shouted "We have killed Charlie Hebdo! We have avenged the Prophet Mohammed!"
Cayat's family believed she was killed because she was Jewish, based on earlier phone threats. A couple of weeks before the shooting, Cayat received several anonymous calls telling her to quit, and saying that she would be killed because she was Jewish. The phone calls stated "You should stop working for Charlie Hebdo, otherwise we're going to kill you." Her family said she dismissed the threats as "verbal garbage". The shooters had a chance to kill another female employee, Sigolène Vinson, but spared her life, saying, "We don't kill women."
After the attacks, several funds were set up to help those who were affected by the attacks on Charlie Hebdo. Fundraisers were also set up to help the victims' families, and the funeral funds of the Jewish cartoonists who were killed. Within 24 hours of the shooting, the French press had raised approximately $590,000 (half a million euros) so that the magazine could publish over 1,000,000 copies of the next issue instead of its normal run of 60,000 copies.
Cayat's funeral was the point of departure for an extended meditation on man's relation to death, mourning and consolation by her friend, the feminist rabbi Delphine Horvilleur.Delphine Horvilleur, Vivre avec nos morts: Petit traité de consolation, Bernard Grasset, 2021 esp.pp.23-67.
Career
Death
Context
Impact
Reactions
Writings
Awards
See also
External links
|
|