In France, women in shorts become another symbol of the clothing culture war. The Muslims Invading France.

The Washington Post reports:

According to initial reports published in the French press this week, two women wearing shorts were verbally assaulted as they made their way through an eastern neighborhood in the southern city of Toulon on Sunday afternoon. Local prosecutor Bernard Marchal told reporters a group of about 10 young men began insulting the women, who were out biking and rollerblading with their families, calling them "whores" and making other vulgar insults for their choice of clothing.

When the women's spouses confronted the men, a brawl broke out. The husbands and a male friend were severely beaten. The fighting, which was witnessed by children in the group, left one man with severe facial fractures and another with a broken nose, Marchal told Agence France-Presse. Two suspects, ages 17 and 19, were apprehended Tuesday; an investigation is underway to find the others.

The idea that the women had been harassed simply because they wore shorts led some to dub it the "affaire des shorts." However, on Friday one of the women involved came out to say that was inaccurate. "We were not in shorts. We were in sportswear," the woman, named as Marie, told the Nice Matin newspaper.

Part of the reason the incident spread so quickly was that it followed a previous attack on a woman wearing shorts. In early June, an 18-year-old girl named Maude Vallet said she was insulted, threatened and spat on by a group of girls while on a bus in Toulon — all because she was wearing denim shorts. Vallet posted a picture of her outfit on Facebook afterward, arguing that men can walk around the city with their shirts off and not face the harassment she faced.

After that incident, about 100 women wearing shorts gathered in Toulon for a "short walk." The event was promoted with the hashtag #TousEnShort — or "all in shorts."

Culture war.