Text and photo Julie Go, Forum Femmes Journalistes de la Mediterranée
The primary demand of French feminist movements is better support for women who report sexual assault and domestic abuse. According to the Observatoire national des violences faites aux femmes (National Observatory on Violence Against Women in French), only 10% to 12% of victims report these crimes, and of those, fewer than one in ten see justice served. Delays are lengthy, and investigations are poorly conducted.
One of the most recent and widely publicized cases is that of Gisèle Pelicot, a woman from Mazan (a city in the south of France), whose husband drugged her for years, offering her on several occasions to other men who raped her while she slept, all while he recorded the scenes. These men were recruited through a forum titled “A son insu” (“Without Her Knowing”). Fifty of the eighty men filmed have been identified and are currently being prosecuted. Nonetheless, some deny knowing it was rape, claiming they thought Gisèle Pelicot, who was unconscious from the drugs during the assault, wanted it.
The husband was initially arrested for filming up women’s skirts in a supermarket, leading to a review of his computer and hard drive, which revealed the videos. His DNA is also linked to a murder case and another case involving rape and attempted murder, both of which occurred in the 1990s.
Another well-known case involves a 19-year-old woman named Philippine, who was murdered by a man who had previously been convicted of rape and sentenced to only five years of jail. He raped and murdered that poor girl just days after his release. Because he’s an immigrant, nationalists are using that story to stigmatize immigrants in general, but for feminists, the issue is that a five-year sentence is far too lenient for rape.
In 2018 and 2019, a movement against domestic violence arose. However, it fell apart when its founder, Marguerite Stern, was accused of “transphobia.” A crowdfunding campaign was launched to hire an assassin to kill her for speaking out against what she calls the “gender identity movement.” The crowdfunding campaign was halted, but after that she became close to the radical right and published a book titled Transmania. The book was published by an editor considered far-right, and it has been accused of inciting hatred against trans people.
The French feminist movement is sharply divided over the definition of the word “woman” (is a woman anyone who identifies as one, or must one be born female?), over prostitution (France prohibits the purchase of sex from individuals in prostitution), and over the question of the Islamic veil.
Eight percent of the French population is of Muslim cultural background. Until the 1960s, Morocco and Tunisia were French colonies (like Puerto Rico for USA), and Algeria was a French department (legally similar to any region in France). People who migrated to mainland France at that time did not technically emigrate—in the sense that they did not legally change countries—yet racism still affects their descendants.
Many feminists warn that the headscarf is not necessarily a symbol of Islam but rather of its radical version, and that since the 1990s, there has been a surge in its use within French people with Muslim backgrounds (a group present in France since the 1940s and 1950s). Other feminists label criticism of garments that conceal women’s identities or parts of their bodies as Islamophobic and racist.
Gender inequalities in France are not limited to issues of sexual violence; they also include wage disparities and educational orientation (women are less likely to choose scientific careers, for example). However, given the severity of sexual violence (incest and pedophilia remain near-taboo topics) and the drain caused by internal tensions, French feminist movements appear to focus on the critical issue of sexual violence.
