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Feminist Activist Faces Online Backlash Over Tour de France Podium Girls Petition
Tuesday 30 July 2019, by
Feminist activist Fatima Ezzahra Benomar, a Franco-Moroccan, denounced "the sexist practices of the Tour de France" on social media. This backfired, as she was subjected to a torrent of insults from angry internet users.
The tradition at the end of each stage of the Tour de France is for the winner to be accompanied by two "podium girls" who help him put on the jersey. Accompanied by German activists, Fatima Ezzahra Benomar had her petition, filed at the headquarters of Amaury Sport Organisation, signed by 28,000 people.
"Hostesses have been hired for decades. The wind has turned and we should break with this sexist tradition," she wrote in the petition. Although encouraged by many supporters of this cause, the Franco-Moroccan was turned away from the premises before relaunching her campaign on social media.
She then suffered a wave of cyber-harassment where racist insults poured in from all sides. Her Moroccan origins have earned her a lot of xenophobic remarks. "Clearly, it’s harder to be a feminist activist when you’re called Fatima, because you’ll suffer the double stigma, as a woman and as a woman of immigrant origin," she says regretfully.