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A government minister has drawn criticism from all sides after she posed for the cover of French Playboy magazine, despite being fully clothed.

Emmanuel Macron's outspoken minister for the social economy Marlène Schiappa will appear on the front of the April edition of the famous magazine, with an interview inside discussing women's and gay rights as well as abortion.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said that the decision "was not at all appropriate, especially in the current period."

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Green MP and fellow women's rights activist Sandrine Rousseau also questioned the timing, given the social tension in France over the decision to raise the retirement age.

"Women's bodies should be able to be exposed anywhere, I don't have a problem with that, but there's a social context," she told the BFM TV channel.

The 40-year-old took to Twitter to respond to criticism, writing: "Defending the right of women to do what they want with their bodies: everywhere and all the time.

"In France, women are free. Whether it annoys the retrogrades and hypocrites or not."

The editor of the mag said Schiappa is the most "Playboy compatible" of ministers in Mr Macron's cabinet.

It is not the first time the activist-turned-politician has caused a stir, with the Financial Times calling her 'agent provocateur'.

In 2018 she told an audience of about 800 people "my vagina is angry" as she recited lines from Eve Ensler’s Vagina Monologues on the eve of International Women’s Day.

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Schiappa, who brought in anti-street harassment laws, was criticised for her visit to so called 'no go zones' where migrants and drug dealers harass women.

She was accused of staging the visit to the north-eastern area of La Chapelle-Pajol in the capital, publishing pictures on Twitter showing her walking down the street at night past a group of men.

"The Republic's laws protect women and apply every hour of the day and everywhere," she wrote alongside the image, before the tweet was deleted.

"Marlène Schiappa walks around for five minutes in Pajol without being harassed and demands a medal," one person wrote on Twitter.

"Her mistake was to tell everyone who felt attacked and insulted that they'd dreamt it all up," complained another.

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