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| Europe | |||
| "Ni Putes Ni Soumises" | |||
| 2004-03-24 | |||
| A year after it launched a campaign to denounce violence against women in France's high-immigration, high-rise city suburbs, called banlieues, the group "Ni Putes Ni Soumises" has become a nationwide force - but still finds itself held at arm's length by the mainstream feminist movement. The organisation - whose name means "Neither Whores Nor Slaves" - was born out of the appalling tragedy that befell a 19-year-old girl, Sohane Benziane, who was set on fire and killed by a boy she knew in a run-down apartment estate in the Paris outskirts in October 2002. Led by 38 year-old activist Fadéla Amara, "Ni Putes Ni Soumises" conducted a much-publicised series of demonstrations around France in early 2003, culminating this year in a Women's Day march through Paris after which a petition signed by 15,000 people was handed to President Jacques Chirac. The movement directs its anger at the violence and stigmatisation suffered by young women of North African origin who it says are increasingly the victims of a culture of abuse justified in the name of Islamic tradition in the neglected French banlieues. "When I was growing up it was perfectly normal for girls to wear short skirts, or tight jeans, or low tops. No man would have dared make a remark. Today - and for the last ten years - femininity is seen by boys as a provocation, as something to be condemned," Amara said in a recent book. The group's message is a frightening one: that social breakdown in the country's high-immigration neighbourhoods has led to a generation of young Arab men crippled by self-loathing and alienation, who take out their frustrations in aggression against their increasingly assertive female counterparts. The most symbolic illustration of the phenomenon is the practice of "tournantes" - the gang-rape of young women handed over by their boyfriends for group enjoyment - though of more general significance is the day-to-day abuse and humiliation encountered among the tenements, the group says. What has exacerbated tensions has been the debate over the Islamic headscarf in schools, which will be banned from September under a highly-contentious law that has just passed through the French parliament. "Ni Putes Ni Soumises", which sees resurgent Islamic traditionalism as the major threat to young women, has come out unequivocally in favour of the law and believes the focus of feminist pressure should be "the defence of secularism, the Republic and the fight against fundamentalism." But mainstream feminists grouped in the left-wing National Collective for the Rights of Women disagree.
While naturally supporting "Ni Putes Ni Soumises" in its general aims, the Collective argues that the priority should be to attack the centre-right government of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, which they say has presided over a policy of "social regression" - notably in women's employment rights.
From the start "Ni Putes Ni Soumises" put France's feminist movement in a quandary, because it explicitly accused mainstream activists of abandoning the "banlieues" in their pursuit of elusive political goals. It also made clear it made no distinction between left and right in apportioning blame for the crisis.
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #4 I will agree that it's all Bush's fault, if only in the name of gosh, make the GREEN stop. Help! It gives me the jittery teeth. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-03-24 8:09:11 PM |
| #3 I've always held that the women's movement is mostly about promoting the advancement of left-wing, college-educated, upper-middle class women and has very little to do with improving the lot of poor, uneducated women. Everything that I read or hear, from the recent article in The Atlantic on the "Nanny Wars" to this article to conversations I have with female friends and colleagues reinforces my belief. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2004-03-24 5:24:09 PM |
| #2 ...believes the focus of feminist pressure should be "the defence of secularism, the Republic and the fight against fundamentalism." But mainstream feminists grouped in the left-wing National Collective for the Rights of Women disagree. Of course they do. It's politically incorrect to criticize the behavior of a minority group even when that minority group is doing things that are the exact opposite of what the feminists groups should stand for. This is yet another example of why the Left, in the end, supports people who are diametrically opposed to the Left's so-called core values. The Left has become completely entangled and confused by it's own confused ideologies. |
| Posted by: RMcLeod 2004-03-24 5:19:15 PM |
| #1 just how far can you get with french arrogance..if you are not going to have imigrant populations assimilated then you have a very dangerous situation that will take years to correct. it is really disturbing to hear this. no western nation who's traditions are based on equality need this 7th century bullshit. but i am sure the headlines wills sceam ITS ALL BUSH'S FAULT |
| Posted by: Dan 2004-03-24 3:27:23 PM |