Repeal of French Trouser Law

Further to my blog post from May 2012 - France: Paris' Trouser Law - comes this update from BBC News:

The French government has overturned a 200-year-old ban on women wearing trousers.

The Minister of Women's Rights, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, said that the ban was incompatible with modern French values and laws.

She said the law, imposed on November 17, 1800, had in effect already been rescinded because of incompatibility.

The move to formally repeal the law followed a parliamentary question asked last year.

According to the law, women needed to have the permission of local police if they wanted to "dress like a man" and wear trousers.

Though it has been ignored for decades, formally it remained on the statute books.

Ms Vallaud-Belkacem said the original law had been intended to prevent women doing certain jobs.

The Bastille - 5-Star Prison

From the Washington Post:

A roaring fireplace, a warm bed, some wine and little pastries welcomed people to La Bastille. This was no charming inn, but the notorious French prison, stormed by an angry Parisian mob on July 14, 1789, in an outburst that helped set off the French Revolution.

For the first time, an exhibit in Paris has pulled together archives on the prison to offer a glimpse into the hidden world of the Bastille. It shows the inmates' relative comfort - and why it became such a target of revolutionary ire.

"I maintain it was a 5-star prison," said historian and Bastille expert Claude Quetel. He said the prison's privileged position came from being directly under the king's eye, both geographically and because it was where monarch after monarch sent his personal enemies.

France: Nannies Flex Their Muscles

From the New York Times:

A stroll through any Paris neighborhood will bear out a trend that has already made it into official statistics. More and more foreign-born women are pushing the baby strollers, caring for the bedridden, ironing the shirts. With an aging population, and one of the European Union’s highest birthrates, France needs help at home, particularly as budget cuts take a bite out of social services.

Meanwhile, at a time of economic slowdown, more immigrant women are willing to take jobs to help lift the income of their own families.

“These may not be beautiful jobs, but they are jobs that are in demand, and we have identified an increasing number of women willing to do them,” said Jean-Pierre Garson, head of the international migration unit at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, based in Paris.

According to the O.E.C.D.’s latest migration report, the employment rate for foreign-born women in France has risen steadily in the past decade — from 44.2 percent in 1995 to 52.3 percent in 2008.

France: Bill On Veils Passed

From the New York Times:

The French Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill barring women from wearing the full facial veil anywhere in public. If the law is approved by France’s constitutional council, it will go into effect next spring and set a range of fines for women, including tourists, who wear the full veil. It also provides criminal penalties for those who force women to wear it. The vote was 246 to 1, with many abstentions from left-wing legislators; the bill passed the lower house in July.

Critics say that the measure stigmatizes one sex of one religion, but the law is very popular with the public and proponents say it defends traditional French values like women’s rights and secularism.

France: Rise In Infanticide

From Time:

The question is as horrifying as it is important to ask: Why are a rising number of French women killing their newborn babies? Finding the answer has become a matter of urgency following the discovery on Wednesday of eight infants allegedly smothered to death and buried by their mother in northern France. And with that case marking at least the fifth instance of multiple infanticide reported in France since 2003, it has become vital for the nation to confront the phenomenon that appears to be behind it all: a mental condition known as pregnancy denial.

 

Experts explained those cases as resulting from pregnancy denial, an often misunderstood and minimized condition. According to Michel Delcroix, a former gynecologist who served as a court expert in the Courjault trial and others involving pregnancy issues, pregnancy denial is a quasi-schizophrenic condition in which women either don't realize or cannot accept that they are with child — not even enough to have an abortion. Whether these women are afflicted with the condition before they deliver or as they're suddenly giving birth, Delcroix explains, the psychological denial is so strong that they refuse to believe they're pregnant even when the reality confronts them.

France: Husbands Jailed For Insults

From the Telegraph:

Couples who insult each other over their physical appearance or make false accusations about infidelity face jail, under a new French law making "psychological violence" a criminal offence.

The law – the first of its kind – means that partners who make such insults or threats of physical violence faces up to three years in prison and a €75,000 (£60,000) fine. French magistrates have slammed the new legislation as "inapplicable", as they argue the definition of what constitutes an insult is too vague and verbal abuse too hard to prove.

It will apply to both married couples and cohabiting partners.

France: Paris' Trouser Law

From the Telegraph:

The curious rule was first introduced in late 1799 by Paris' police chief, and stipulated than any Parisienne wishing to "dress like a man" must seek special permission from the city's main police station.

This makes the laissez-faire French capital theoretically more hardline than Islamic states like Sudan in the fashion stakes.

But a group of ten French MPs has now submitted a draft bill to parliament to remove the law, which has survived repeated attempts to repeal it.

In 1892, it was slightly relaxed thanks to an amendment which said trousers were permitted "as long as the woman is holding the reins of a horse".

Then in 1909, the decree was further watered down when an extra clause was added to allow women in trousers on condition they were "on a bicycle or holding it by the handlebars".

In 1969, amid a global movement towards gender equality, the Paris council asked the city's police chief to bin the decree. His response was: "It is unwise to change texts which foreseen or unforeseen variations in fashion can return to the fore."

France: Burqua Bill

From AFP:

Muslim women who wear the full Islamic veil in France will face a possible 750-euro (1,000-dollar) fine, according to a draft bill unveiled Thursday by the leader of the parliamentary majority.

Jean-Francois Cope, who heads the governing UMP party in the National Assembly, told Le Figaro newspaper's weekly magazine that men who force their wives to wear the burqa or niqab could face an even heavier fine.

Books: History & England

Some upcoming and recently publications on the various aspects of and events in English history and medieval history:

• Reassessing Anglo-Saxon England by Eric John
• Joan of Arc: la Pucelle by Craig Taylor
• Medieval Maidens: Young Women & Gender in England: 1270 - 1540 by Kim Phillips
• Women of the English Nobility & Gentry: 1066 - 1500 by Jennifer Ward
• Chronicles of the Revolution 1397-1400: The Reign of Richard II by Chris Given-Wilson
• Late Merovingian France: History and Hagiography by Paul Fouracre and Richard A. Gerberding
• Court and Civic Society in the Burgundian Low Countries c. 1420-1520 by Andrew Brown and Graeme Small

Happy Reading!

Pakistani Jailed for Burning

From the International Herald Tribune:
"A French court has jailed a Pakistani man for 20 years for setting his ex-girlfriend alight after she refused to marry him, in a case seen by rights activists as highlighting violence against women in poor neighbourhoods. The sentence was handed down late on Thursday, court officials said on Friday.

"It sets a good example. For women who are victims of violence, I think 20 years is a good step," Chahrazade Belayni, the victim, told reporters after the sentence was read out.

...activists say some young Muslim men take out their frustrations about poverty and discrimination on women ...."

Germaine Tillion - Anthropologist

Saturday saw the passing of noted anthropologist, Germaine Tillion.

From Yahoo News:
"French Feminist Anthropologist Germaine Tillion Dies Aged 100":
"Born to a prosperous family in mountainous central France on May 30, 1907, Tillion trained as an anthropologist in the 1930s and cultivated a life-long interest in Algeria. Between 1934 and 1940, she made four trips to Algeria, travelling on horseback and camping with Berber nomads as she gathered her firsthand observations. But it was her wartime experiences that first brought her to wider public attention as a founding member of the "Museum of Mankind" intellectual resistance network at the start of German Occupation during World War II. In 1942 she was betrayed by a priest working for the Gestapo and arrested at the Paris' Gare de Lyon station.

At the same time her mother -- also in the group -- was picked up for hiding a British airman, and the two were sent to the all-woman concentration camp of Ravensbruck in late 1943. Tillion used her academic training as a tool for survival, treating the camp as a case-study for observation -- and after the war bringing out two definitive books on Ravensbruck. Tillion was one of France's most decorated people, being one of just five women awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion d'honneur. She was also honoured with her country's croix de guerre and Resistance medals, and Germany granted her the title of Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic in 2004."

Review - The Crown Rose

Hmm ...... this novel of medieval France by Fiona Avery is a hard one to categorise.

Okay - it is basically a story of the early life of St. Isabelle of France - daughter of Blanche of Castile and sister of St. Louis. It roughly covers her younger years from the period of 1234 to 1242 - the last chapter catching up with Isabelle in her last years.

It is a curious novel as is delves into the mystique of local French legends, religious relics and secret societies - so be warned, this is not a "straight" biographic retelling of the life of a medieval saint.

The "relationships" between the French royal family, and with those around them, makes for an interesting by-play.

But to quote the inside jacket of the book:

"The Crown Rose portrays the mystery of one man who enters Isabelle's life at several key moments, becoming her icon, her soul's other half, and her destiny - a man who may, in fact, be much more that an ordinary man."

You really have to keep reading it to discover the mystery of this Man - I literally could not put it down. I kept wanting to have a break from reading, but couldn't - so I sat and read, and read till finished.

Look I enjoyed this book - and will most likely read it again within the next six months.

Review - The King's Women

The blurb on the back of Deryn Lake's book reads as thus: "... a meaty dish of lust and medieval intrigue..."

The main focus of this book centers around the women who played a pivotal role in the life of King Charles VII of France. The setting is in the latter part of the period in history known today as the Hundred Years' War - a war of succession involving both English and French claimants to the French throne following the deaths of King Philip IV and his sons.

The book is in four parts, focusing on Charles' life and those women who helped shape him. Part I focuses on Charles' mother, the grotesque Isabaeu of Bavaria, Queen of France, and his future mother-in-law, the intelligent Yolande d'Aragon, Queen of Sicily and Duchess d'Anjou.

Part II deals with Charles' relationship with his first "important" lover, one Madame de Giac (Bonne), and Charles' wife, Marie d'Anjou, Yolande's daughter. Part III deals specifically with Jehanne Darc (La Pucelle - Joan of Arc) whilst Part IV deals with Charles' last great love, Agnes Sorel.

Okay - this is not a straight re-telling of Charles' life - but more of a narrative focusing on the interaction of these women and Charles; how they influenced him; and how they shaped the man he was to become.

I found, however, Part II to be rather labourious - is is the longest; and Part III dealing with Jehanne (or Joan) was rather brief, as was Part IV (Agnes).

There is a twist in this book, and one you will have to follow quite closely from start to finish - an interesting twist - this will give pause for further thought.

A background into the Hundred Years' War isn't necessary - but it does help where characters are concerned. An enjoyable read nonetheless.