French politicians have rallied in support of a woman who was hit by a man when she stood up to him after he harassed her in the street, calling the attack “unacceptable,” “revolting” and “intolerable behavior.”
“Total solidarity! Thank you Marie Laguerre for your courage! Stop harassment!” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Twitter in response to a tweet by the victim of the attack, 22-year-old architecture student Marie Laguerre.
Closed-circuit TV footage of the event, shared online by Laguerre, shows her walking near a cafe in Paris when a man says something to her.
There is no audio of the interaction, but Laguerre has said that he made “dirty noises, comments and whistled,” to which she responded by saying: “Ta guele,” or “shut up.”
After they parted, the video shows the man turning and throwing an ashtray at Laguerre, which narrowly misses her. He then walks purposefully toward her and hits her on the head so that she stumbles and falls against the glass barrier of a cafe terrace.
The Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an inquiry into the incident, but so far the attacker has not been identified.
Other French politicians rallied in support of Laguerre.
“It is not acceptable that in France, in 2018, women are hit in the street because they refuse to be insulted when they walk. It is a fundamental issue of liberty,” French Secretary of Equality Between Women and Men Marlene Schiappa said on Twitter.
Schiappa, who succeeded in getting the French National Assembly to pass legislation in May introducing fines for sexual harassment on the street and public transport, also commended Laguerre, calling her “courageous.”
“All my support to Marie Laguerre... Unfortunately what she has experienced is far too common, it is revolting,” said Alexandra Cordebard, mayor of Paris’ 10th arrondissement.
Reau Mayor Alain Auzet said on Twitter that “it is time for men, especially elected officials, to condemn with the greatest firmness the intolerable behaviors of some.”
Politicians shared these posts using various hashtags, among them #BalanceTonPorc, or “rat on your pig,” the French version of #MeToo.
Under the same hashtag, women living in France shared Laguerre’s story online, many saying that her experience was all too common in the country.
Laura Hulley, who works at the British embassy in Paris, wrote that she was assaulted on the street in Paris last month.
She said that one of her friends, British broadcast and Web journalist Catherine Bennett, “was literally punched when she stood up to her aggressor.”
“Not for the first, nor the last time it happens to a woman on the street (in the middle of the day, moreover). And men ask me why I say that I am afraid of them,” she said on Twitter of the attack on Laguerre.
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