Morality Police Come to France [With comment by Paul]

In Reims, a young woman was sunbathing in a public park, wearing a bikini. Nothing wrong with that, right? Wrong:

Social networks across France responded angrily to the news a 21-year-old woman was beaten up by a gang of girls and young women for the crime of wearing a bikini in a park. …

According to police the young victim was sunbathing with two friends in the Parc Léo Lagrange in Reims, northern France, last Wednesday when one of her five female attackers verbally abused her for “immorally” exposing so much flesh in a public place. The sunbather shouted back at which point the other girls and young women moved in, slapping and punching her.

Passers-by intervened to protect the badly bruised victim.

The attackers, aged 16 to 24, all “come from housing estates with large Muslim populations.”

French women took to Twitter, posting photos of themselves in swimsuits with the hash tag #jeportemonmaillotauparcleo (I wear my swimsuit in Park Leo).

One such woman wrote (in translation):

France is a free country. Women there are free. It annoys you? Change country.

She probably has no idea how out of fashion that sentiment is with opinion elites in her country, and ours.

PAUL ADDS: I was in Reims a few weeks ago, but didn’t make it to the park. I had an unpleasant encounter with an aggressive young Muslim near the train station. I’m not certain exactly how unpleasant it was because I couldn’t understand his French, nor he mine (with better justification).

On the other hand, a Muslim couple that I asked for directions was very nice.

Reims is famous for landmark historical events and encounters. St. Remi baptized Clovis I at the Cathedral in or around the year 498. Louis I (the Pious) was the coronated there in 816. Nearly three dozen more kings followed suit, the last one, I believe, being Charles X in 1825.

More recently, Germany surrendered in May 1945 at Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force near the Reims train station. General Jodl did the deed. General Eisenhower accepted. The building is a museum now.

17 years later, French president Charles De Gaulle and German chancellor Konrad Adenauer attended a landmark reconciliation mass at Reims Cathedral, the turning point in relations between the two countries. Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande marked the 50 year anniversary of the reconciliation by meeting at the Cathedral in 2012.

It’s sad to think that Islamists are now trying to police Reims for “immorality,” but heartening to learn that the French seem to be pushing back.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses