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 A women’s rights campaign group is organising marches and protests in a bid to retake streets in predominantly Islamic neighbourhoods which they say have become entirely male dominated.
La Brigade des Mères, which is aiming to restore gender equality in France’s troubled ‘banlieues’, says women in many communities are now too scared to go out because gangs of young men rule the streets.
And a shocking undercover report, compiled by the TV channel France 2, shows how women are not welcome in bars and cafes in Muslim majority areas, with many men openly hostile to their presence in public at all.
Pascale Boistard, the women’s rights minister, declared: “There are now areas in our country where women can no longer go.â€
The disturbing revelations come at a politically sensitive time for France, which will hold presidential elections in March in which far-right leader Marine Le Pen is expected to perform well.
Attitudes towards immigration have hardened in the country following the devastating terror attacks in Paris and Nice, with the Front National poised to capitalise on people’s fears about the erosion of French identity.