France could ban catcalls in crackdown on macho culture

The country’s gender equality minister Marlène Schiappa has spoken of a gray area in French law between sexual assault, which is already criminalized and defined as “any sexual infringement carried out using violence, coercion, threats or surprise,” and innocent attempts at seduction.

Schiappa is setting up the cross-party working group along with the interior and justice ministries. It will listen to expert views on the issue to inform a planned law that would define and punish street harassment so that it “is no longer tolerated in our society.”