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#OnThisDay, 31 Jan 2013, women in Paris are officially allowed to wear trousers.

The 1799 law had required women to ask police for permission to "dress as men", or risk being taken into custody. Amendments in 1892 and 1909 were made to allow women to wear trousers if they were holding horse reins or a bicycle handle. The law was widely ignored.

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, France's minister of women's rights, lifted the ban as “incompatible with the principles of equality between women and men”.