When Jean-Baptiste Michalon posted a notice on the outside of his general store last year, he hardly imagined that it would create a national outcry.

"Sisters on Saturdays and Sundays only," the note read. Michalon's message to customers in the French city of Bordeaux: Women were welcome only on weekends. Men could shop on weekdays.

On Tuesday, a court fined Michalon $560 for making such a distinction, despite his argument that he had posted the sign to protect his wife, who was also working in the store, and other women.

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"We put this in place at the request of the sisters who preferred when my wife was behind the counter. It is a shop where we sell clothes," Michalon, who converted to Islam four years ago, told the French news agency Agence France-Presse last year.

Following the outrage created by his note, the Frenchman closed his store and "admitted it was a blunder and tactless," according to a statement from his lawyer.

Local politicians and Muslim leaders stressed that Michalon's behavior did not represent mainstream opinions. The city's mayor, Alain Juppé, a former prime minister of France, called the practice "discriminatory."

Anti-women laws that still exist in 2016

Multiple studies have also found a growing problem with racism in France, mainly directed toward Muslims, who are believed to constitute about 7 percent of the French population. Muslims frequently complain that they have a hard time getting jobs, but conservative French commentators and politicians have emphasized that the country should not give up its founding promises of equality in order to please radical Islamists.