A French government minister has sparked outrage after she posed for the cover of Playboy magazine.
Marlene
Schiappa, the minister for the social economy, was fully clothed for
the shoot. It will appear on the cover of the April edition in France.
But the move has drawn the ire of both her political opponents and colleagues.
Prime
Minister Elisabeth Borne told Ms Schiappa that her decision "was not at
all appropriate, especially in the current period."
In
recent weeks France has seen a series of violent clashes between police
and striking workers, who are angry at President Emmanuel Macron's
planned pension changes.
His proposals would raise the retirement age by two years to 64.
Prime
Minister Borne's criticism was echoed by Green MP and fellow women's
rights activist Sandrine Rousseau, who questioned the timing of the
move. She told the BFM TV channel: "Women's bodies should be able to be
exposed anywhere, I don't have a problem with that, but there's a social
context."
The pictures will be accompanied by an interview on women's and gay rights, as well as abortion.
On
Saturday, Ms Schiappa defended her decision to appear in the magazine,
writing on Twitter: "Defending the right of women to do what they want
with their bodies: everywhere and all the time. In France, women are
free. Whether it annoys the retrogrades and hypocrites or not."
Ms
Schiappa, 40, is regular guest on French TV talk shows and was a
feminist author before embarking upon a career in politics. She has
written about the challenges of motherhood, women's health and
pregnancy.
Whilst serving as equalities minister in 2018, Ms Schiappa brought in legislation outlawing catcalling and street harassment.
But this is not the first time she's been involved in controversy.
Back
in 2010 she authored a book which provided sex tips for overweight
people, perceived by some critics to be reinforcing harmful clichés.
And in 2017 she was accused of staging a visit to a so-called "no-go area for women" in Paris.
The
editor of the French-language edition of Playboy backed Ms Schiappa's
decision to appear in the magazine, describing her as the most "Playboy
compatible" of ministers in Mr Macron's cabinet, due to her strong and
vocal support of women's rights.
He
also defended the magazine itself, which has long angered feminists for
what some see as its objectification of women's bodies.
"Playboy
is not a soft porn magazine but a 300-page quarterly 'mook' (a mix of a
book and a magazine) that is intellectual and on trend," he said.
According
to Mr Florentin, although the magazine still contains "a few undressed
women... they're not the majority of the pages".
