Breastfeeding may be allowed in public, but in practice it is not always easy for women to do so without being the object of criticism, ridicule or even being asked to leave the premises altogether. This is what a customer of a Uniqlo store in Chesnay-Rocquencourt, in the Yvelines, experienced.
“Today, as usual, we are going as a family to our @uniqlofr store to buy shirts for my husband. My daughter is hungry, and another habit for a year and a half now, I feed her when a salesman calls out to me: ”IT IS FORBIDDEN TO EAT IN THE STORE””, told Rebecca in an Instagram post, spotted by the newspaper The Parisian. “He asked me if I could leave the store”, explained the mother to the Parisian.
Still, Rebecca has every right to breastfeed in public. The incident is all the more difficult for this mother to digest as the salesman would then have launched to her: “I am fed up with these bourgeoises who believe that everything is allowed. » Contacted by The Parisianthe Uniqlo France brand apologized and recalled that it did not prohibit breastfeeding in any way in its points of sale.
This kind of business is not uncommon. Last June, a woman complained of being prevented from breastfeeding in a zoo in Lille. Last year, a mother had to leave a library, and a woman who was breastfeeding her baby during a visit to the Louvre museum was ordered to go to the bathroom to pursue by a museum agent. The latter would have explained to him that breastfeeding in the museum was not “allowed” and that “it could disturb other visitors”.