A French feminist group attending a protest in favour of abortion was allegedly attacked in Paris this week, claiming that transgender activists labelling them transphobic were behind the violence.
Members and supporters of the feminist group L’Amazone took part in a pro-abortion demonstration in Paris earlier this week — part of a number of demonstrations across the country in several cities that saw several thousand people participate and demand abortion as a fundamental right in Europe for women.
L’Amazone posted a video of the alleged attack to their Twitter account on Thursday, blaming “transidentitarians” for the violence, saying: “Today, in France, women who are going to demonstrate during the International Day of Struggle for Abortion are being attacked by transidentitarians with complete impunity and with the complicity of the organizers of the march.”
The group stated that they were labelled “TERFs” or trans-exclusionary radical feminists by their attackers, who demanded they leave the demonstration.
“They tore down our signs and started beating us when we tried to get them back. We asked the organizers to intervene in the face of this violence, which they refused. We, therefore, turned to the police who were present,” the group added.
“When did it become normal in France to attack women during feminist demonstrations? What is the relationship between transphobia and women who demonstrate for the right to abortion?” the group said.
French feminist and former member of the protest group FEMEN Marguerite Stern expressed her support for the group, saying: “The women of [L’Amazone] have been assaulted by a horde of teenage girls visibly much more angry with the ‘TERFs’ than with the restriction of abortion.”
Stern has previously spoken out about her own experiences of harassment from transgender activists after she questioned the presence of transgender people in feminist activist circles.
“I believe that it is an ideology that is taking more and more space in feminism and that conveys sexist values against which I, as a feminist, fight. Consequence: for two years, I have received death threats, rape [threats], and insults. I am defamed by calling me a transphobe when I never make comments calling for hatred of transgender people,” she said in December of last year.
This week’s incident is not the first time the activists of L’Amazone have been subjected to violence. On March 8th during International Women’s Rights Day the group was also violently attacked in the middle of a procession after being accused of being transphobic.
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