Muslim Fined For Refusing To Shake Woman Prefects Hand

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Story By: Joseph GolderSub-EditorJoe Golder, Agency: Newsflash

A Muslim man has been ordered to pay over EUR 2,000 for refusing to shake hands of prefect in France because she was a woman.

The ruling by a court in Bourges comes after the man refused to shake Catherine Ferrier’s hand. At the time, she was the prefect of the Cher department in the Centre-Val de Loire region.

The incident took place on 7th January but the ruling by the court in Bourges was on 22nd September.

Newsflash

The court ruled that the man’s behaviour had been sexist.

He was fined EUR 750 EUR (GBP 683) and told to pay the former prefect EUR 1,500 (GBP 1,366) in damages.

The handshake incident had taken place at the prefecture as the man was waiting for some documents. He refused to shake Mrs Ferrier’s hand under the pretext that she was a woman and that his religion forbade him from doing so.

Newsflash

The official, who in her role represented the state, was wearing gloves at the time and a uniform and had come to greet the public to wish them a happy New Year.

After the incident, Ms Ferrier filed a complaint and the matter was investigated by the prosecutor’s office in the city of Bourges.

The public prosecutor had requested the maximum fine of EUR 750 and it was granted. The former prefect of the Cher department had asked for EUR 2,000 (GBP 1,821) in damages.

Newsflash

In a statement quoted in French newspaper Le Berry Republicain, the current prefect of Cher, Jean-Christophe Bouvier, explained that he had followed through with the “decision by a court to condemn a French citizen, who on two occasions, hid behind an ideological interpretation of Islam, to refuse to shake the hand his predecessor, Catherine Ferrier, in 2018 and 2020.”

The statement mentions two similar events but the court decision is only about the most recent event.

The French newspaper reports that in 2018, the man, representing the Ditib Vierzon association, an association that represented Turkish workers, had also refused to shake her hand and had said: “We are not allowed to shake the hands of women.”

Newsflash

The first incident had taken place on 23 March 2018 during a ceremony to pay respects to Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, a soldier who had been killed by an Islamic terrorist, after he offered himself as a hostage in exchange for a young woman, during an incident at a supermarket in the city of Trebes (Aude department).

The current prefect of Cher, Mr Bouvier, said: “This decision reminds us of the fundamental character of respecting values of secularity and of the equality between men and women in the Republic.”

The Muslim man has not been named in local media.

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