French women protest, launch petition over sexual harassment in Parisian district

Saturday, May 20, 2017
By Paul Martin

RT.com
20 May, 2017

Outraged women in an eastern Parisian district have staged demonstrations and launched an online petition receiving 7,000 signatures within 24 hours – all over a “male den” in their neighborhood where women are subject to harassment and sexist remarks.

In what is described as “a few hundred square meters” in the neighborhood of Chapelle-Pajol, cafes, bars, and restaurants are effectively banned for local women, Le Parisien reports. Residents say that over the past year, the area has changed completely, with groups of men of unidentified origin, as well as street vendors, harassing local women.

Locals staged a protest on Friday to draw attention to what is going on in the area.

They also started a petition titled “Women, an endangered species in the heart of Paris,” which states: “There are insults, in all languages: ‘Bi**h, dirty whore, I’ll f**k you…’”

They go on to describe how things currently are in their neighborhood, and the picture they paint is frightening.

“There are pickpockets, street drinking, spitting, rubbish everywhere, a strong smell of urine. Traffickers are settling down, traffickers of human beings, drugs, fake documents. The traffickers let us know every day that we are undesirable, us and our children.”

Residents are forced to stay at home, fearing to venture outside, the petition adds.

“This must stop!” the petition concludes, urging the local authorities to “finally comply with laws and regulations, particularly in the places where traffickers are stationed, to carry out investigations on the sectors, to increase the number… of police officers assigned to this area.”

Local women told French media about their plight, with young girls unable to go out alone or wear skirts or tight trousers.

“The atmosphere is agonizing, to the point of having to modify our itinerary, our clothes. Some even gave up going out,” 50-year-old Natalie, who has lived in the area for 30 years, told Le Parisien, adding that one 80-year-old woman had been sexually abused when going home once, and since then had not been out.

The Rest…HERE

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