Elsa Cayat

Elsa Jeanne Cayat (; 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.

Personal Elsa Cayat was born on 9 March 1960 in Sfax, Tunisia.

Cayat was 54 years old when she was murdered in Paris, France, on 7 January 2015.

She qualified as a doctor at 21, and later practiced as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in Paris. 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.

Death Elsa Cayat had received threats in connection with her religion and work at Charlie Hebdo over the phone about a month prior to the attack. She continued to write her column after the threats, dismissing them as "verbal garbage". 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!" Charlie Hebdo was trying to show that ISIS had not won and never would. The office had been threatened many times and firebombed. The French government tried to make Charlie Hebdo hold back on publishing some of its cartoons, but they continued to publish the cartoons because of their support for freedom of speech.

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."

Writings 1998: Un Homme + Une Femme = Quoi? (A Man + A Woman = What?), Paris, Jacques Grancher 2007: Le Désir et La Putain (Desire and The Whore), a dialogue with Charlie Hebdo journalist Antonio Fischetti, Paris, Albin Michel 2015: La Capacité de s'aimer (The Capacity to Love Each Other), Paris, Payot

Awards In 2015, Elsa Cayat received the Legion of Honour award.