Leila expresses her contempt for the French and their language several times, and even while she was young and in school she hated French. Again in the novel she mentions her hatred for French schooling, "I feel bad for mademoiselle Doze, even if she was French" (Abouzeid, 6). Leila also has personal reasons to hate the French. The French had arrested and tortured her father for being, and had forced the language upon her. This made her hate the French from a very young age. She does not show any hate for other foreign languages like the English language because they have not personally caused harm to her.