“TOMORROW thou shalt be a woman, my son,” read one of the banners during the colossal Sunday demonstration in Paris against the new family law bill that the government had hoped to get passed by the national assembly during the coming spring session.

The protest was part of a campaign by French fathers and mothers to halt in its tracks the ruling Socialist party’s rather bumptious attempt to put an end to cultural and traditional differences between boys and girls.

The crusade of “gender theory classes” for students between ages five and 11, a brainchild of women’s rights minister Najat Vallaud, was received by France as a shock and young children were held back from attending schools by a large number of parents all over the country.

Classes had already begun with screenings of a movie called ‘Tomboy’ showing a young girl dressed as a lad, calling herself Michael and fighting with other boys. After the film, teachers, following Mrs Vallaud’s instructions, were expected to explain to students that in nature there really were no differences between the two sexes and if boys wore blue and played football while girls in pink loved dolls, that was nothing else but manipulation by reactionary societies.

The indoctrination campaign in primary schools had also included readings from a book entitled “Daddy wears a skirt” that were aimed at converting children to the Vallaud ideology. In the dubious and ridiculously embroidered story, a boy’s father, a professional boxer, gives up his career to become a ballet dancer wearing high heels and skirt.

Following the countrywide protests, realising that the hostile public opinion may harm their chances in the municipal elections due next month, the Socialists abruptly dropped the project and announced they will not be submitting their family law motion before parliament ‘this year’.

The decision was not unrelated to the dismal popularity ratings of the Socialist party in general and of President François Hollande in particular.

Recent polls, especially those conducted following the disclosure of his secret affair with an actress and his widely publicised separation from his former girlfriend Valérie Trierweiler, generally promise him no more than 18 per cent of votes in his favour.

The other scandal involving Hollande is his controversial approval of a postage stamp. What happened was this: on a winter day in the beginning of last year, seven young women representing what they later called the ‘Femen organization’ entered the Notre Dame cathedral during a religious ceremony and suddenly stripped themselves naked.

Exhibiting vulgar and provocative slogans painted on their bodies and insulting Christianity and the Pope, the women started breaking chandeliers and other church objects.

The leader of the group was identified as Inna Shevchenko, a Ukrainian. Later, an artist who was charged with creating a stamp for the French Post Office purposely used Shevchenko’s resemblance to adorn the design.

Despite widespread protestations, the Post Office approved the stamp and President Hollande unveiled it, in person, during the 14th July National Day celebrations.

Now, as Inna Shevchenko is to appear before judges on Wednesday (Feb 19) to face accusations of public disorder and violent behaviour in a sacred lieu, questions are being raised as to why Hollande in the first place approved the stamp bearing her portrait.

Appealing to the president to immediately cancel the stamp, daily Le Figaro wrote in an opinion piece last Saturday: “France, as a secular republic, incarnates the values of respect and tolerance, while this militant lady represents an extremist ideology, spreads a message of hatred, calls for social revolt, causes damage to a historical monument and commits acts of terrorism.”

But, to come back to our subject of the day concerning boys and girls, while other ministers are using tactful, face-saving expressions to describe the unexpected rebuff to the family bill, the women’s rights minister is putting the blame on what she calls a ‘nation-wide hysteria precipitated by reactionaries’.

A Moroccan-born Muslim now married to a powerful Socialist party official Boris Vallaud, who was instrumental in her astronomical rise at the relatively early age of 35 to her current position in François Hollande’s cabinet, Mrs Najat Vallaud refuses to give up easily.

A day after the government’s withdrawal of the motion, she announced a competition with a reward of 5,000 euros to young people between ages 16 and 25 who could draw a sketch, send a photograph or write an article stressing her point that there is no difference between boys and girls.

To the critics of the aborted bill, her response appears to be: “Alright, have it your way, you reactionaries! Boys will be boys and girls will be girls —until further order.”

—**The writer is a journalist based in Paris. **(ZafMasud@gmail.com)****