Women say they are increasingly afraid of traveling on Paris’s RER C line, particularly after the attempted rape of a woman in Choisy-le-Roi by an Egyptian illegal migrant earlier this month.
Several female commuters told Le Figaro they have adopted precautionary measures as part of their everyday routine. Some avoid traveling alone, others choose seats carefully, or carry pepper spray.
“Every woman has a story to tell about the RER,” said Alicia, a café worker who lives between Paris and Amsterdam. “I feel much safer in Amsterdam,” she added.
Le Figaro listed several techniques used by women to deter would-be attackers. It wrote:
“Clothilde has learned never to ride a train alone. Inès takes off her headphones to ‘listen to her surroundings.’ Adèle holds her keys between her fingers, like claws. Lisa ‘creates a protective bubble’ for herself with earphones stuck in her ears. Joe never lets a man sit behind her. Lola wears several layers of clothing. Tiphaine sits next to a man who inspires confidence. Élodie always carries pepper spray in her bag. Hortense carries an umbrella with a spike on the end. Some use the ‘turkey technique’ in cases of imminent danger: making animal noises to mimic madness.”
🇫🇷🔴 Many young women in France have a "subway shirt" for avoiding harassment on the train system.
It has become a "reflex" to put on more clothing before getting on public transport, even in summer.
"Sometimes I even take the trousers and sweatshirt and put them over my… pic.twitter.com/7MA206RtoI
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 1, 2025Studies show such behavior is widespread. A 2022 Paris Region Institute report found that most women develop strategies to avoid harassment. Sociologist Julien Noble of the CNRS said the RER network, a hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit system connecting central Paris with outlying areas, “concentrates a greater social mix,” making it perceived as less safe than the metro.
In March, Remix News reported on new data from the National Observatory on Violence Against Women, which showed an 86 percent uptick in sexual violence on French buses and trains in the last decade. Young women are most targeted; 75 percent of victims are under the age of 30, while 36 percent are minors.
Some 63 percent of those arrested for sexual assault were foreign nationals. That does not include naturalized French citizens who are categorized in statistics as French.
Similar data is seen in Germany, where 59 percent of all sexual assaults on German trains are attributed to foreigners, with sexual crimes doubling since 2019.
“While most violence against women is committed by members of their close circle, the fact remains that public spaces, and particularly public transport networks, remain places where women are exposed to sexist and sexual violence as soon as they enter them,” noted Miprof Secretary General Roxana Maracineanu at the time.
The survey also showed that 7 out of 10 women who live in the Île-de-France region have already been victims of sexual violence during their lifetime.
Few victims pursue legal action. “We tell ourselves that it’s a waste of time and that it’s unlikely that the perpetrator will be found,” said Claire Geronimi, founder of Éclats de Femmes, an association supporting assault survivors. She founded the association after being sexually assaulted herself by a foreign national.
🇫🇷🔴 On a Paris metro: "You French are poor sons of b**ches. It's Africa that’s rich. You motherf**ker."
"I f**k your mothers, in the name of Allah, in the name of Allah, I f**k their mother, in the name of Allah, you will see!" pic.twitter.com/pAWhgKH5lh
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 15, 2025Le Figaro notes that transport operators and regional authorities have introduced several measures in response. Île-de-France Mobilités has expanded surveillance, installing 80,000 cameras and increasing security staff. Regional president Valérie Pécresse wants AI-based video monitoring to immediately identify assaults occurring on public transport.
Proposals for women-only carriages have been suggested but not adopted. Feminist associations argue that such a measure would normalize the problem rather than solve it. “It would mean that we have accepted insecurity,” said Geronimi, “and that separating men and women is the only solution.”
Le Figaro’s investigation comes after Jhordana, a Brazilian tourist visiting her brother in Paris, was subjected to an attempted rape by an Arab attacker on a morning commuter train on Oct. 15.
🇫🇷‼️ A Brazilian tourist was subjected to a vicious sexual assault on a French train on Wednesday morning, and only escaped being raped thanks to the intervention of a brave woman who filmed the assailant to scare him off.
Jhordana, 26, had been visiting her brother in Paris.… pic.twitter.com/pxOTu4fZXf
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) October 19, 2025At Choisy-le-Roi station around 8:30 a.m., most passengers got off, leaving Jhordana alone with her attacker. She soon realized a man had been staring at her. He briefly stepped off the train but then returned as the doors closed, leaving only the two of them inside.
“He walked towards me without speaking. I was panicking, I stood up,” she told Le Parisien through her brother, who translated her account. “Then he pushed me, still without a word. I tried to escape, but he pulled down my pants. It’s clear he was trying to rape me.”
The attacker bit her on the lip when she resisted, slapped her, and groped her buttocks and breasts. When she tried to call for help, he placed his hand around her throat to stop her from screaming. “He choked me to silence me. That’s when I felt like I had no more strength,” Jhordana recalled. “I saw myself dying.”
Thankfully, a woman from another carriage noticed the assault and stepped in, opting to record the attacker, who subsequently exited the train at the next stop and fled.
On Sunday evening, Parisian authorities confirmed they had charged a homeless Egyptian national, who was the subject of an unenforced deportation order, with the attack.
🇫🇷🔴 "it seems he is looking for prey."
Serial groper, Tunisian migrant Nidhal O., sexually assaulted 3 different women in the Paris Metro — all on camera.
He was arrested in December 2023 and was finally sentenced to 11 years in prison on Sept. 26.
The footage only covers 3… pic.twitter.com/zFp9X1fXh6
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 30, 2025Earlier this month, a Tunisian national. 26-year-old Nidhal O., was sentenced to 11 years in prison and a permanent ban from France after being found guilty of six sexual assaults and one attempted rape, committed primarily on the Paris metro system.
