Just a day after it emerged that a black feminist festival - to be held in the French capital, Paris, at the end of July - would mostly exclude all other races, on Monday organizers appeared to backtrack following a public backlash.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo tweeted that she'd held talks with organizers of the Nyansapo Festival, and that the public event would now be "open to all" after "a clear solution" had been found.

Hidalgo added that private "non-mixed" workshops would be held somewhere else, referring to events advertised as being exclusively "for black and mixed-race women."

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She went on to say that Monday's clarification would now allow the festival to proceed with its plans after she previously threatened to have it banned.

Confusion over mayor's comments

But the Afrofeminist group Mwasi, which organized the festival, insisted in a Facebook statement on Monday that the event "had always been organized in this form."

It earlier claimed to have been the "target of a disinformation campaign."

On its website, the collective says it is "non-mixed so that we are in the best position to grasp the weapons of our emancipation." The group says it is neither against men nor other races.

Read more:Taking on racism and hate speech in France

On Sunday, Hidalgo had tweeted her displeasure at the festival's door policy, after its brochure suggested that 80 percent of the event space would be accessible only to black women.

"I firmly condemn the organization of this event in Paris (that's) forbidden to white people,'" she told her followers, adding that she might call for the organizers to be prosecuted on grounds of discrimination.

Plans criticized

The three-day festival, to run from July 28 to 30 at a cultural center in the French capital, bills itself as "an event rooted in blackfeminism, activism, and on (a) European scale."

With most of the festival area to be set aside as a "non-mixed" space "for black women," some other sections would be open to black men and "racialized women," the event's website said. One smaller space would be open to everyone regardless of race.

Read more:French paper's racial poll infuriates Twitter

Several rights organizations, including SOS Racism and the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA), condemned the event as one that "wallows in ethnic separation," saying it would be a "regression" for race issues in France.

The festival is not the first to court controversy in modern times for excluding other races. Last year, a "decolonization camp" in the northeastern French city of Reims banned white people after billing itself as a "training seminar on antiracism" reserved for victims of "institutional racism" or "racialized" minorities.

Famous feminists and the struggle for equality Alice Schwarzer (*1942) In fall 1975, Schwarzer released her book "The Little Difference and Its Huge Consequences," in which she analyzes sex as a power play between men and women. It became a bestseller, making Alice Schwarzer the best-known and most divisive feminist in Germany. She has been publishing "Emma" since 1977. Here's a look at women who have preceded and succeeded Schwarzer in the fight for equality.

Famous feminists and the struggle for equality Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793) The French revolutionary was a pioneer in the struggle for women's rights. In 1791, Olympe de Gouges wrote a "Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen" in response to the 1789 declaration of human and civil rights, which didn't take women into account. In her text, she wrote that women are born free and are equal to men in all of their rights.

Famous feminists and the struggle for equality Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) Activist Sojourner Truth made a connection between the rights of slaves in the United States and those of women. She campaigned for both the abolition of slavery and women's suffrage. Her speech "And ain't I a woman?" which she held at a women's rights convention in Ohio in 1851, went down in the history books.

Famous feminists and the struggle for equality Louise Otto-Peters (1819-1895) Louise Otto-Peters is considered the founder of the German women's rights movement. In 1843, she became famous for saying, "The participation of women in the interests of the state is not a right, but a duty." Otto-Peters co-founded Germany's first feminist organization, the Allgemeiner Deutscher Frauenverein, in 1865.

Famous feminists and the struggle for equality Hedwig Dohm (1831-1919) In 1874, she wrote "The Scientific Emancipation of Women." Hedwig Dohm called for women's suffrage and unrestricted access to universities, making her a radical pioneer of the German feminist movement. According to her motto "Human rights know no gender," Dohm demanded equality across the board.

Famous feminists and the struggle for equality Emily Davison (1872-1913) British sufragette Emily Davison was arrested eight times. The activist sometimes resorted to violent protests in her campaign for women's rights. She was a member of the Women's Social and Political Union, which was founded in 1903. Its motto was, "Deeds, not words." Ultimately, Davison died a martyr. In an effort to draw attention to her cause during a horse race, she was trampled to death.

Famous feminists and the struggle for equality Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1968) Simone de Beauvoir's 1949 work "The Second Sex" is a milestone of feminist literature. In it, she famously wrote, "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman." Well ahead of her time, she was among the first to assert the thesis that gender is not a biological fact.

Famous feminists and the struggle for equality Betty Friedan (1921-2006) In her work "The Feminine Mystique," Betty Friedan criticized the reduction of women to mothers and housewives. It was published in 1963 and she became an activist in the American feminist movement. In 1966, she and 27 other women founded the National Organization for Women. She would go on to spend her life fighting for gender equality.

Famous feminists and the struggle for equality Judith Butler (*1956) The deconstruction of gender is the central theme of Judith Butler's work "Gender Trouble" from 1990. Her thesis is that both our learned gender and our biological sex are socially construed and our gender identity is a performance. The American philosopher became a pioneer of feminist theory in the 1990s.

Famous feminists and the struggle for equality Mozn Hassan (*1979) Mozn Hassan and her organization Nazra for Feminist Studies have fought for women's rights in Egypt since 2007. During the Arab Spring, Nazra made sure that sexual harassment became a statutory offense. In 2016, the feminist activist Hassan received the Right Livelihood Award — also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize — for her work.

Famous feminists and the struggle for equality Laurie Penny (*1986) Laurie Penny of Britain is considered one of the most significant feminists of our time. Her works "Meat Market" and "Unspeakable Things" criticize the sexualization and sexual suppression of women and the idea of romantic love. Penny works as a columnist and journalist for "The Guardian," "the Independent," "New Statesman" and others.

Famous feminists and the struggle for equality Margarete Stokowski (*1986) She is also known as the "German Laurie Penny." Margarete Stokowski's debut book "Untenrum frei" ("Free down below") discusses power, mechanisms of sexual suppression, gender roles assigned be society and how small freedoms relate to larger liberties. The "Spiegel" columnist's main thesis is that we can't be free at the top if we're not free down below — and vice versa. Author: Lina Friedrich (kbm)



mm/tj (AFP, AP)