French minister appears on front cover of Playboy

PARIS: Can posing for Playboy be a feminist statement? A French government minister thinks so and has defended her decision to appear -- clothed -- on the front cover of the notorious magazine.

Marlene Schiappa, a 40-year-old feminist author who was plucked from obscurity by President Emmanuel Macron in 2017, is no stranger to controversy and has repeatedly angered rightwingers.

But even the prime minister and leftwing critics feel the minister for the social economy and associations has made a mistake with her latest stunt: posing for Playboy to accompany a 12-page interview on women´s and gay rights as well as abortion.

“Defending the right of women to do what they want with their bodies: everywhere and all the time,” Schiappa wrote on Twitter on Saturday. “In France, women are free. Whether it annoys the retrogrades and hypocrites or not.”