Arrest of former IMF boss baffling to French

[Prometheus Bound]

Arrest of former IMF boss baffling to French

In France, woman would have been advised to drop matter, expert says

By Peter O'Neil, Postmedia News May 21, 2011

It would be "unthinkable" in France that a low-wage migrant African worker could bring down one of the most powerful men in the world, says an expert on sexual-harassment laws in the United States and France.

If the incident last weekend involving Dominique Strauss-Kahn had taken place in Paris rather than New York, the complainant would have likely been talked out of pressing charges, said Abigail Saguy, a sociologist at the University of California in Los Angeles.

"I think it is definitely unthinkable, and this is the reason why people in France are so stunned that this has happened," said Saguy, author of the 2003 book What is Sexual Harassment? From Capitol Hill to the Sorbonne.

....."I think she would have been strongly encouraged not to come forward with it, and if she were to come forward with it I think she would have been met with negativity and she wouldn't have been taken seriously."

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Arrest+former+boss+baffling+French/4821808/story.html#ixzz1N1e17AZR

If this is true, I have lost a lot of respect for France. I guess the French Revolution did not go far enough.