Thousands march in Paris for women's rights

PARIS -- Thousands of women marched through Paris on Saturday to press for equal rights for women and show support for a law to ban Islamic head scarves in public schools.

Some carried pink signs, and one held a replica of a gallows with dolls in the style of Barbie dangling from ropes. One sign read, "Neither for Sale nor for the Taking."

Police said some 7,000 people took part in the march, organized by the National Collective for Women's Rights and several unions and leftist political parties.

Not all had the same agenda.

Some demanded jobs for women and equal rights in the workplace. Others marched in support of a new law against wearing Islamic head scarves in public schools.

Both houses of parliament have approved the bill, which cleared the Senate on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, two groups fighting for women's rights unveiled a plaque at the tomb of feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir in Montparnasse Cemetery. The plaque is to honor the memory of a 17-year-old girl, Sohane, burned alive in October 2002 by a 19-year-old man in a high-rise Paris suburb.

Sohane has become a symbol for women fighting sexist violence, particularly in France's suburban ghettos.