[1][2][3][4][5] Annie Sugier was born in Courcelles-lès-Lens, a small town a short distance to the south of Lille in the extreme north of France.

[8] She received her university-level education at the "Faculté des sciences d'Orsay", part of the Paris-Saclay University, where she obtained her degree in Physics and Chemistry.

[9] Sugier then embarked on a career as an industrial chemist, specialising in the reprocessing of radioactive waste, employed as an engineer with the CEA (in a division subsequently reconfigured, and now part of Areva S.A.).

It came in response to scientific disagreement triggered by an epidemiological study postulating a connection between emissions from the La Hague reprocessing plant and a heightened incidence of Leukaemia among young people in the surrounding neighbourhood.

[14][15] Applying the same model, Sugier then accepted a request by Ministers of Health, Economics and Industry to set up a second interdisciplinary expert group to investigate the old Uranium mines in Limousin (in south-central France), in order to assess their environmental impact.

In 1974/75 she was a co-founder of the "Ligue du droit des femmes" ("Women's rights league"), together with Simone de Beauvoir, Vicky Colombet, Anne Zelensky and Annie Cohen.

[23] She has also taken a lead in combatting violence against young girls with immigrant backgrounds: issues on which she has campaigned include excision, forced expatriation and various classes of "honour crime".

[26][27] After the verdict, Annie Sugier produced a rapid succession of statements and articles celebrating the fact that for the first time, under pressure from the LIDF's involvement in the case, a court in France had been persuaded to respond to the acts of torture and barbarism of which Sohane Benziane was the victim, to acknowledge the concept of "a sexist crime".

[29] Her political beliefs and, in particular, her feminist commitment have been on display over many years in columns she regularly contributes to Libération and Le Monde.

Critical commentators sometimes suggest that Riposte Laïque was soon taken over by extreme rightwing attitudes, notably with regard to race and tribalism.

Sugier quit the Riposte editorial team during the summer of 2010, indicating that she no longer found herself in agreement with its tone and [political] alliances.

In 1995 she joined with others to set up the so-called "Atlanta+ Committee", in order to draw attention to and denounce sexual apartheid and discrimination against sportswomen more broadly.

[33] In 2012 she published "Femmes voilées aux Jeux olympiques" ("Veiled Women at the Olympic Games") which covered more than twenty years of "Atlanta+ Committee" campaigning.