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| Rebecca Amsellem |
“No, Marine Le Pen is not a feminist,” Rebecca Amsellem, head of the “Les Glorieuses” feminist group, wrote in a reaction piece on the Huffington Post, to be published late Friday.
Marine
Le Pen’s feminist front
Far-right
leader suffers backlash from women’s groups for her argument on
Cologne attacks.
By NICHOLAS VINOCUR
AND SOFIA MELO 1/15/16, 6:11 PM CET Updated 1/15/16, 7:14 PM CET
PARIS — French
far-right leader Marine Le Pen has discovered her inner feminist
following mass sexual assaults in Germany, invoking forebears such as
Simone de Beauvoir and Élisabeth Badinter for the first time in a
diatribe against open-door migration policies.
There’s just one
problem: Feminists want nothing to do with Le Pen.
In an opinion piece
published Thursday by French daily l’Opinion, Le Pen called for a
French referendum on the country’s migration policy and argued that
women’s rights were being compromised by an influx of refugees.
Le Pen invoked mass
sexual assaults that targeted women on New Year’s Eve in Cologne to
blame migrants for a negative impact on women’s liberties in
Europe.
“I am revolted
today by the unacceptable silence and therefore tacit consent of the
French Left in the face of these fundamental attacks on the rights of
women,” Le Pen wrote. “I am scared that the migrant crisis
signals the beginning of the end of women’s rights.”
While Le Pen is
arguably one of France’s most influential women, at the head of a
party that won millions of votes in a regional election in December,
she has rarely spoken out on women’s issues. Feminists have
criticized Le Pen for peddling what they say is a reactionary view of
the family, while her niece, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen, came under fire
in December for proposing to cut funding to Planned Parenthood in her
region, with a petition against her proposal signed by more than
14,000 people.
According to local
authorities in Cologne, more than 500 women have registered
complaints of sexual abuse since the attacks took place two weeks
ago. The authorities went on to describe the majority of the suspects
in the attack as asylum-seekers and illegal immigrants of “Northern
African descent.”
Le Pen seized the
opportunity to shine a negative light on immigration, voicing disgust
at what she said were clear attacks on women’s rights that were
carried out by immigrants.
But, despite
references to celebrated French feminists including Badinter and de
Beauvoir, Le Pen’s plea fell flat with feminists.
“No, Marine Le Pen
is not a feminist,” Rebecca Amsellem, head of the “Les
Glorieuses” feminist group, wrote in a reaction piece on the
Huffington Post, to be published late Friday. “Simone de Beauvoir’s
words are used as an electoral expedient, in order to feed a hatred
of foreigners and migrants.”
Marie Allibert,
spokeswoman for French feminist group Osez le Feminisme, said that Le
Pen’s proposals, including a living wage for women, or letting them
stay home to fight unemployment, exposed her as a non-feminist.
“We are horrified
and scandalized that this pretend feminist considers herself to be
Simone de Beauvoir,” said Allibert.
“The fact that she
uses the right of women for racist purposes, and xenophobic, to
express herself on migrants, we find that intolerable,” she added.
Authors:
Nicholas Vinocur
and Sofia Melo
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