Yesterday, there was a march in Paris where 10,000 French women protest at life of terror in ghettos

The protest, timed to fall on International Women's Day, was the high-point of a month-long campaign by women activists against violence targetting women on estates mostly in suburbs that are home to many of France's North African immigrants.

''We are fighting for our lives and I find this dramatic in a democracy as advanced as France,'' said Kahina, the elder sister of 17-year-old Sohane Benziane who was burned to death in the street by a local teenage boy in a Paris suburb.

Kahina was one of 400 women who presented a petition against violence earlier in the day to Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin at his official residence in Paris.

Marchers in central Paris brandished posters featuring the slogan of the campaign, ''Ni Putes, Ni Soumises'' (Neither Whores, Nor Submissive), printed in bold pink letters on black paper.

Built in the 1960s, France's high-rise estates have fallen into disrepair and are widely seen as modern-day ghettos, trapping their inhabitants in a vicious circle of violence, poverty and unemployment.

Home to many immigrants from the Maghreb, such suburbs have seen a rise in radical Islam that has turned attitudes towards women even harsher. Pressure is mounting for Muslim women to wear veils and forced marriages that snatch girls from college and a career are now commonplace.

Police said some 10,000 people had turned up for the march.

''It's been a great success. Everyone has come, old an young, even men,'' said 21-year-old Alice from a Paris suburb, who had ''submissive'' written and then crossed out on her forehead.

Young women who live on some estates have adopted a dress code of baggy pants and puffy jackets, saying that girls who wear short skirts are branded sluts and considered ''fair game.''

Reports of gang rapes have made headlines but statistics do not indicate whether such attacks are on the rise.

''Before, they would shut up, but now more and more women are daring to speak out, to come and see us,'' said Ophelie Berquier, a policewoman who was at the women's meeting with Raffarin.

''But it's not just the police's job. It is for everyone to help their neighbour, to report it.''

The campaign has awakened French politicians to the problem. Several ministers signed the petition and a few deputies joined the march.

President Jacques Chirac acknowledged the issue last week, saying ''the first right of women is the right to respect.'"