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Emmanuel Macron under fire for remarks about women with large families

Mothers in France and Africa have hit back on social media after the French president suggested mothers with many children were uneducated.

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France’s President Emmanuel Macron is facing criticism from mothers with big families both at home and abroad for recent comments he made about women and fertility in Africa.

Hundreds of French and American women took offence at a September speech Mr Macron made at the Gates Foundation’s Goalkeepers Summit.

He said a critical issue for African demography is that women and girls do not have the choice to have children or not because they are uneducated.

He said: “I always say: ‘Please present me the lady who decided, being perfectly educated, to have seven, eight, nine children’.”

Pregnancy stock
A pregnant woman (Andrew Matthews/PA)

Even though Mr Macron was specifically referring to African women in his speech, many Western women are using the hashtag #postcardsforMacron on social media to criticise him.

They are also sharing photos of their large families.

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