Paris, the city of love is one of the most wanted to be visited cities of the world. Famous for its Eiffel Tower and the picture portrayed by recent Hollywood movies, it is approximately every man/woman’s dream to have a look at the city personally as pictures do not often do justice. But who would have known that it had a law against women wearing trousers out in public.
On November 17 1800, French Government at that time imposed a law of banning women from wearing trousers in public. The law was initially imposed by French revolutionists from stopping women to impersonate men as the revolutionaries wore pants rather than the culottes (silk knee breaches) which were worn by men in those times. In 1892 and 1902 the law was modified to allow women to wear trousers only if they were riding a bicycle or a horse but it had not been abrogated.
Although women in Paris had been wearing trousers in public in the near past, the law had not been practiced as such. The law was abrogated on the grounds that it was incompatible with French values and laws. The French minister for Women’s Rights and Government Spokesperson Najat Vallaud Belkacem said,
The order was aimed first of all at aiming the access of women to certain offices or occupations by preventing them for dressing in the manner of men. This order is incompatible with the principles of equality between women and men. From that incompatibility stems the implicit abrogation of the order.
