A quiet Paris bar where men play cards and bet on horses has become the unlikely focus of a national row over alleged no-go zones for women in predominantly Muslim areas.

The bar in the impoverished north-eastern suburb of Sevran is accused of being one of many in France where women are effectively banned.

The neighbourhood, near Charles de Gaulle airport, is notorious as one of France’s leading exporters of jihadists.

“Au Jockey Club” is clearly a male preserve — there were no women when The Telegraph visited — but it serves alcohol and feels more akin to a high street bookmaker than a den of Islamists. Licensed as a betting shop, its mainly French Arab patrons gazed intently at giant screens showing the races at Deauville.

A secretly-filmed French TV news report this week showed two women’s rights campaigners, Nadia Remadna and Aziza Sayah, being told not to enter the bar.