French face fines for wolf-whistling

Gender Equality Minister Marlene Schiappa said she was convinced the measure would act as a "deterrent". Photo / AP

Repeat wolf-whistlers face on-the-spot fines of up to €750 ($1290) under a law against sexual harassment passed in France this week, amid outrage over film of a woman being punched in Paris.

MPs approved the law on its second reading on Thursday, days after security film footage showing a man punching Marie Laguerre, a Parisian student, went viral online.

However, feminist groups, and some police unions, criticised the new bill against "sexist outrage" as a "huge disappointment" that would see more serious offences go unpunished and said that it was inapplicable in practice.

The new law creates fines of between €90 and €750 for gender-based harassment on streets and public transportation, starting next month.

"Harassment in the street has previously not been punished. From now on, it will be," Marlene Schiappa, Gender Equality Minister and architect of the new legislation, told Europe 1 radio.

She said she was convinced the measure would act as a "deterrent".

The law, which bans sexual or sexist comments and degrading, intimidating or hostile behaviour, came as Laguerre, 22, launched a website to allow victims of harassment to recount their ordeal - with 200 posted within 24 hours.

The site, Nous Toutes Harcelement (We are all harassed), aims to collect accounts of incidents "in the street, at work, in the private sphere", she said.

France was appalled when security camera footage from a bar showed her being violently punched by a man in broad daylight after she told him to "shut up" for repeatedly harassing her with lewd advances.

She filed a complaint with police who have opened an investigation, and she wrote that "we must no longer keep quiet".