109 Marianne at the Panthéon.
On the occasion of International Women's Rights Day, the exhibition '109 Mariannes', inaugurated by the Minister responsible for Citizenship, Marlène Schiappa, opens today, 4 March, on the roundabout of the Panthéon in Paris.
A symbolic figure of the French Republic, the Marianna embodies the values of France summarized in the famous motto: "Liberté, égalité, fraternité".
Today, it is these republican freedoms and values that Emmanuel Macron's current administration intends to celebrate despite coronavirus-related restrictions.
Since the times of the Third Republic, well-known French women have embodied the traits of the Marianne.
Among these, Brigitte Bardot, Inès de la Fressange, Laetitia Casta, Mireille Mathieu.
They all represented the image of France at home and in the world.
This year, the Ministry of the Interior promotes the new blood of the Republic, through 109 portraits of women that symbolize the so-called France of the diversity of origins.
As many faces of French citizens, including Amandine Petit (Miss France 2021) April Benayoum (Miss Provence), the virologist Karine Lacombe, the first female rabbi, Delphine Horvilleur, the militant for the Human Fraternity and mother of the first soldier assassinated in Toulouse in the attacks perpetrated by Mohammed Merah, Latifa Ibn Ziaten, but also feminists, policewomen, nurses, cleaners, who have been at the forefront of the fight against the invisible enemy.
Entirely in the open air, the exhibition open until March 15 aims to promote the diversity of the towns and to highlight the new faces of France today and tomorrow.