How to accept and teach the keys to universal knowledge? | Faouzia Charfi | TEDxCannes

Faouzia Charfi reminds us of the necessity to teach our children the keys to science. She talks about scientific and human progress, particularly in the Arab-Muslim world, and their universality. It's the story of intelligence against obscurantism. Faouzia's father, when he was a pupil in Sfax in 1922, discovered this knowledge thanks to Kheireddine, the man at the origin of the Tunisian modernity that began in the 19th century and, despite difficulties, continues today with the revolution of 2011.

Faouzia Charfi is a physicist and a professor at the University of Tunis. An activist during the Bourguiba presidency, she was condemned by the State security court in 1968 for being a member of the Perspectives political movement. After the Revolution of January 2011, she was appointed Secretary of State for Higher education. Soon after, she resigned from the transitional government, to take back her freedom of speech and action. She is the author of " The veiled science" (Ed. Odile Jacob)

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

A good evening to all.

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2014
was awarded to three scientists.
.

Three researchers from Japan,

for their fundamental role in
developing new light sources:

the blue light emitting diodes
called LEDs.

These light sources are effective
and environmentally-friendly.

And then these light sources will be,

as I put it here,
the lights of the 21st century.

LED lights will be the lighting
of the 21st century,

like Edison's lamp
was the lighting of the 20th century.

This is a technological breakthrough.

A technological breakthrough
that is based on a theory,

the quantum theory.

In fact, this quantum theory
was born in the early 20th century

and led to a number of important
and fundamental applications:

the transistor, which is
the basis of electronics;

but also an object that was very
mysterious at first: the laser,

which has become a valuable tool
for doctors in surgery

but that is more commonly found
at every cash deck

for reading bar codes.

So initially, however,
quantum theory was not accepted.

It was not accepted because
it was questioning

our vision of physics.

In fact, it was a breakthrough.

Breaks are rarely accepted easily.

At the same time,
in the early 20th century

there was a break in art.

Yes, abstract painting.

Abstract painting also changed

the vision we had of the world,
of representation.

So, what did quantum physics
actually bring?

What did it proposed?

It proposed new objects.

Neither particle nor wave,

"totally crazy things",

to quote the great physicist
Richard Feynman.

It proposed another vision
of the microscopic world.

It proposed to enter
a Terra Incognita

which physicists occupied pretty soon.

And in fact, this evolution of science
was possible only because

science freed itself from dogma.

Science has gained its independence.

This long history of science

is the history of intelligence
against obscurantism,

of critical minds against dogmatism.

This is the story of reason and doubt
against certainty.

It's a long and beautiful story.

We should tell it to our children,

explain the perseverance of scholars,

explain that scientists had to fight

against those who did not accept
the ideas they were bringing

because it was thought
these ideas would disturb beliefs.

And, yes, scientists have had to fight
against a concept of knowledge

locked inside a single idea
of what the truth was.

Whereas, on the contrary it is necessary
to promote a knowledge

open to the world, to civilizations.

This is what Kheireddine,
whom you see here,

who was Prime Minister of Tunisia
in the second half of the 19th century,

wanted to introduce in
a new education system

which was fundamental
for the evolution of Tunisia,

this teaching called
the Sadikian education.

What did Kheireddine want to do?

Kheireddine wanted Tunisia
to catch up in science

because for centuries,
Tunisia had forgotten science,

like other Arab-Muslim countries.

Yes, the Arab-Muslim world forgot
the science of its ancestors.

Let me tell you the last episode
of Arabic astronomy.

In Istanbul, in 1577,
an observatory was built.

Beautiful... with the most efficient
instruments of the time,

like this other observatory that
was designed in... "the North"

by the great Danish physicist Tycho Brahe,

(at the time, the term would have been
astronomer, not physicist).

And this observatory was installed
in the Palace of Uraniborg.

The two observatories,
in Istanbul and in this northern country,

had completely opposite fates

after the appearance of
a comet in the northern sky.

For Brahe, it was fundamental observations

which subsequently led
to the extraordinary development

of astronomy in the European world.

I think everyone knows about it.

But in Istanbul, unfortunately,

that was the end of a beautiful
scientific adventure.

Why? Because in fact, this comet
had been interpreted differently.

In Istanbul, on the orders of the Sultan,
the observatory was destroyed in 1580

because the Sultan had not
accepted the astronomer's omen.

So today, we know more about comets,

you know more now...

we even make appointments
from Earth!

Science is also at the heart
of economic development.

Europe was built,
was economically developed

thanks to scientific development.

And Kheireddine, whom I mentioned earlier,
understood this.

Kheireddine who said we had to take
science wherever it comes from.

Yes, we had to take science
wherever it comes from

and our children had to
discover it early.

We had to educate our children
in this double culture.

Give them a traditional instruction,
of course,

- at the time, in the 19th century,
it was hard to say otherwise -

but also give them
the teaching of modern science,

of foreign languages.

Yes, it is thanks to this double
culture that modernity came into Tunisia.

Yes, this modernity that is in me,
that I carry with me, that I am proud of.

My parents taught me this modernity,
they instilled it in me.

My grandfather,
a French and Arabic teacher.

My father, a pharmacist-biologist.
Look at this picture.

This photo -
my father is one of those pupils.

These pupils of
the French-Arab school of Sfax.

It was the school year 1921-1922.

All dressed in jebba,
except the teacher,

and all loving the
values of equality and freedom:

the values of the French Revolution.

All for opening up to other cultures.

Yes, openness to other cultures...

This is what allows to know the other,

what allows to respect the other,

what allows sharing.

This must be at the heart
of the education system.

Yes, a teacher's mission is a rich one.

They are passers of knowledge.
They are passers of cultures.

They are also passers of values.

Values to share everywhere on the planet,

I mentionned equality:
equality for all.

Equality for women and men.

Yes, equality for women and men.

So as a Tunisian woman,
I want to say

that being from a country
of Muslim culture,

I believe that women in Islamic countries

do not have to undergo
an inferior status. I do.

Already, this principle of equality
between men and women,

was stated by Tahar Haddad,
a Tunisian theologian, in 1930

and his famous work "Our woman,
Islamic law and society "

was translated into French -
you see here the book cover.

And at the end of the book,
a figure which may surprise you.

We don't have time to comment on that
but I'm going to read the small caption:

"Our woman, between a faded past
and a promising present."

Let's talk about the present.

We are worried. We are.

We are concerned by the violence,
by the acts of barbarism in the region.

Yes, we are worried.
March 18, Tunisia, my country,

the Bardo Museum was attacked,
there were victims.

I pay tribute to them,
but the Bardo Museum

is the museum of
the Mediterranean.

This is the museum where all the
Tunisian history is present.

Tunisia was Berber, Punic,
Roman, Byzantine, Vandal

then Muslim and Arab.

So what can we do?
How to deal with this violence?

Yes, we must protect our children.

We must protect our children
from those who invite

to camp in "the field of the curse

to maintain the henchmen of the Demon
and the sequence of destructive hatred".

This is a quote from
a great Tunisian thinker

Abdelwahab Meddeb, who died recently.
I pay tribute to him

Yes, this violence...
how to react to this violence?

Well all together, each of us
in our own way. Each of us where we are.

So as a teacher and a scientist,

I would like to mention very quickly
two examples.

One is the story of my colleague,
Aroua Saida, a biologist and didactician,

who understood that, in fact, students,

our students in their final year,
studying the theory of evolution

had a... shall we say
composite understanding

of the diversity of life.

They muddled up the scientific
and theological references.

And she worked with them.
And the students understood.

They understood you had to step
into the researcher's shoes

That you had to accept the keys
to science, to knowledge,

to accept questioning
and critical thinking.

The second example concerns
the scientific community.

The scientific community
must fight against obscurantists,

who unfortunately,
are currently investing the Web.

Yes, the scientific community

that of Academies of Sciences

made a declaration.

It gathered the Academies of Sciences
of 68 countries

Europe, Latin America,
USA, Africa, Asia,

and among these countries
Arab Muslim countries:

The Islamic Republic of Iran,
the Kingdom of Morocco

Turkey, Palestine...

perhaps I forgot some of them
but anyway...

What did this declatation say?

It shows that it is important
to teach the theory of evolution

that is so attacked on social networks,
on the Internet

and that teaching this theory

which is actually accepted
by the scientific community,

will bring students important knowledge

since the theory of evolution is one
of the great advances of knowledge.

And this declaration called
teachers, policy makers,

parents to educate their children
so they can understand science.

But it also reminds of
something interesting:

that number of questions

cannot be explained by science.

Then we should take other approaches:

philosophical, social, cultural, religious.

These approaches have
different fields of action.

They have different fields of action
and owe each other mutual respect.

So this declaration is a wonderful call.

A wonderful call from
a scientific community,

of different culture,
diverse culture.

But a call for young people to
understand what science is.

For young people to understand
that science is universal.

And I would add, because that is
what is implied in that declaration,

human rights too,
are universal.

And it is this universality
I'm fighting for.

Thank you.

(Applause)