Paris Mayor may ban black feminist festival

Paris: Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has called for a black feminist festival in the city to be banned on the grounds that it excludes white people, the media reported.

The Nyansapo Festival is slated to be held in July. Billed as "blackfeminist", 80 per cent of the venue will be reserved for black women, the BBC reported.

Black people of any gender will be allowed in another area, while a third area will be open to all.

Hidalgo tweeted on Sunday that she reserved the right "to prosecute the organisers for discrimination".

Some French anti-racism organisations have condemned the festival, reports the BBC.

SOS Racisme called it "an abomination" and said it "wallows in ethnic separation", while Licra, the International League against Racism and Antisemitism, said: "Rosa Parks (American civil rights activist) would be turning in her grave."

Last week, the regional head of the far-right National Front party had challenged Hidalgo to explain the "blatantly racist" event.

The organisers said in a statement that they had been "the target of a campaign of disinformation and fake news orchestrated by the extreme right" and they were "saddened to see some anti-racist associations let themselves be manipulated".

They added that many had "no problem" with women-only feminist groups when race was not stipulated.