4
1
An undercover video report shows women openly barred from entering pubs and cafés in Muslim-majority areas of France, and a civil-rights group says it has launched a crusade to reclaim the areas for French women.
Two undercover French women tried to enter a café in Sevran, a suburb of Paris, and were told to stay outside and wait for their male family member. They were not allowed to enter alone.
“In this café, there is no mixing,” someone can be heard telling them on the undercover video.
“Is this normal?” one of them asks.
“We are in Sevran. Not in Paris. It’s a different mentality,” the man tells her, adding, “It is like back home [in the Middle East].”
The report, compiled by the TV channel France 2, shows how women are being booted from these establishments, with many men openly hostile to their presence in public at all, the Express reports.
In Lyon, France’s second biggest city, the report unearthed evidence that women are now actively altering their dress to avoid being threatened or abused by Muslim men.
One young woman told the broadcaster that she does everything she can to not be noticed, including wearing baggy trousers and avoiding wearing skirts and makeup, the Express reports.
When asked why, she told the TV station: “Because I’m afraid, as simple as that.”