France’s Miviludes Targets Watchtowers Abuse: Interview with Barbara Anderson

Written and Published By: Miss Usato

Interviewed: Barbara Anderson

November 2nd, 2025

In this article, Barbara Anderson, a long-time advocate who has spent decades exposing abuse and coercive control within the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization, spoke with AVOIDJW about the development and her intriguing history with the Miviludes. Jehovah’s Witnesses were banned in France in 1939. Over the years, the organization has faced legal battles in France over issues such as tax status, involving both the group and MIVILUDES.

What are the Miviludes?

“Our focus is not on belief systems but on behaviors that cause harm or violate human rights. It is not doctrines that concern us — it is coercion.” – Miviludes

The full name is Mission interministérielle de vigilance et de lutte contre les dérives sectaires, in English, Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and Combat against Sectarian Deviances.

Established in 2002 by presidential decree, MIVILUDES functions as a watchdog agency under the Prime Minister. Its role is to observe, analyze, and counter sectarian or cultic behaviors that threaten public safety, human rights, or the rule of law. It operates under France’s principle of laïcité — secularism, which guarantees freedom of belief but also empowers the state to intervene when that belief translates into psychological manipulation, family isolation, or civic harm.

Recent speeches by MIVILUDES leadership have clarified their mission:

Its job is to:

Monitor movements or organizations suspected of manipulative or coercive practices.
Coordinate responses across ministries —justice, education, health, etc., to protect citizens.
Educate the public and professionals about psychological manipulation, especially where religion or ideology is used to exert control.
Advise on laws and public policies dealing with cult-like behavior.

MIVILUDES operates under France’s secular (laïcité) framework, which can feel alien to Anglophone audiences. It doesn’t target religion per se, but actions considered abusive or contrary to public order.

Barbara: “For decades, governments hesitated to act. France is finally saying that psychological coercion and social shunning are not protected religious practices, they’re violations of human dignity.”

Rimini, Italy— 2009

“I was told that because of my visit, the gap was bridged between the U.S. and France in this matter of proving Jehovah’s Witnesses were a dangerous cult.” -Barbara Anderson

On June 22nd, 2009, in Paris,

Barbara Anderson and her husband Joe flew into Paris after some Former Jehovah’s Witnesses arranged a meeting with them. They wanted her to give a speech at the National Union of Associations for the Protection of the Family and the Individual (UNADFI) headquarters. The Topic: Child Sexual Abuse in the Jehovah’s Witness Organization.

Barbara: “We were welcomed with open arms, and after my talk to about ten people, we were told that the Association arranged a conference at another place in Paris to be held that afternoon. There were about fifty people in attendance, including France’s Minister of Education. I spoke about the dangers of becoming a Witness. I also answered many questions about the Watchtower and its followers. Later in 2009, my visit and lectures were mentioned in the Association’s newsletter.”

After that day, things escalated for Barbara and Joe. On the 23rd, she met in the National Assembly rooms with a member of Parliament representing the parliamentary group of studies on cults.

On the 24th in the morning, she met in the offices of the MIVILUDES with the general secretary of that interdepartmental commission, who reports to the Prime Minister.

Barbara: “I was astounded by who in the government attended the meeting on the 24th, which was the last meeting during the visit. I gave the MIVILUDES officials material proving that the Governing Body of JWs knew about the serious problem of child sexual abuse within the organization since the early 1990s. This is something that the Watchtower organization always denied when contacted by European government officials after abuse victims would come to the government seeking medical and other sorts of assistance. I was told that because of my visit, the gap was bridged between the US and France in this matter of proving JW’s were a dangerous cult.”

Monsignor (Don) Lorenzo Minuti

While John and Barbara were there, they met up with Don Minuti, one of the ten most important priests (prelates at the Vatican.) He wrote and spoke extensively about Jehovah’s Witnesses. A ZENIT feature/interview series introduces him explicitly as an expert on Jehovah’s Witnesses, along with an Italian apologetics site that curates his video lectures on the Watch Tower Society (“Eresie della Società Torre di Guardia”) and links to YouTube uploads under Mons. L. Minuti. There’s also a book attributed to him, ‘I testimoni di Geova non hanno la Bibbia’ (Italian), showing his authorship on the topic.

Barbara: “One of Minuti’s jobs at the Vatican was to monitor the Watchtower Organization. He also wrote articles in the Catholic press regarding the Jehovah’s Witnesses. On his bookshelves in his office was displayed just about every piece of Watch Tower literature that the Witnesses published! He also directed the Vatican radio station, which broadcast the program Maria. I spoke in English about it while I was visiting Minuti’s office. My remarks were immediately translated into Italian and sent around the world from Don Minuti’s office.

-A sect is defined here in France as being any religious organization that can be characterized as employing any of the following methods:

Mental destabilization, exorbitant financial demands, a rupture with members’ original environment, power in the hands of one person, the invasion of a person’s physical integrity, the recruitment of children, antisocial preaching and troubling public order, activities which lead it to be tried in a court of law, using parallel economic structures, attempts to infiltrate the workplace, schools, and public powers. There are around fifty religions or groups which are being tracked, the most commonly known of which are Jehovah’s Witnesses, Scientology, Mormons, The Universal Church, Raelians, and The Unification Church (Moon.)”

Barbara’s site, Watchtower Documents, has a vast amount of articles, research, news and stories on the Jehovah’s Witness Organization.

Paris, France: 2025 -Letter to elders shows worry

A confidential branch communication of the Jehovah’s Witnesses dated October 6, 2025, addressed “For the Local Assemblies of Metropolitan and Overseas France,” has revealed a potentially historic shift in France’s treatment of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The prefect of Hauts-de-Seine officially notified two of the movement’s key associations, the Religious Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses of France (ACTJF) and the Christian Federation of Jehovah’s Witnesses of France (FCTJF), of the intention to withdraw their legal recognition as religious associations.

This notice, dated September 15, 2025, cites findings by MIVILUDES — the Intermenstrual Mission for Vigilance and the Fight Against Sectarian Abuses, France’s government agency tasked with monitoring cultic and coercive movements. According to the report, Jehovah’s Witnesses engage in practices that “undermine freedom of association and public order,” specifically through ostracism and psychological pressure against members who attempt to leave.

If the revocation proceeds, Jehovah’s Witnesses in France face consequences:

Loss of tax exemptions and the ability to receive legacies, and
Possible dissolution of religious associations by the Council of Ministers, which would include loss of properties used for worship.

The letter urges members to send “respectful letters of protest” to the prefect and to make the situation a “subject of your prayers.”

Bitter Winter being bitter, again

Over the past years Masssimo Introvigne has highlighted this topic regarding the Miviludes:

“FRANCE: Jehovah’s Witnesses in the MIVILUDES Report: Five Mistakes” (August 11, 2021). He critiques the methodology of MIVILUDES in its 2018-2020 report for basing much on unverified “saisines” (complaints) rather than systematic investigation. He also critiques that the report treats any active proselytizing by Jehovah’s Witnesses during COVID-19 (letters to the ill, etc.) as suspect, even if it falls within religious freedom.
“FRANCE, Administrative Court Finds MIVILUDES’s Statements About Jehovah’s Witnesses Defamatory” (June 19, 2024) He reports that France’s Administrative Court found certain statements by MIVILUDES factually incorrect and defamatory.
“FRANCE: MIVILUDES Loses Again Against the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Court” (July 21, 2025) This documents a more recent court decision that again ordered the deletion of parts of MIVILUDES’ report.

Introvignes’ 2025 article portrays a French court’s decision as a sweeping victory for Jehovah’s Witnesses and a rebuke of MIVILUDES.

Let’s be clear: this framing is misleading.

While the court found that statements in MIVILUDES’ 2021 report required revision, the decision did not exonerate Jehovah’s Witnesses, nor did it invalidate the agency’s authority or its ongoing investigations. The ruling was largely procedural, addressing which statements could be legally categorized as “defamatory” within administrative documents, not a judgment on the truth of the underlying claims.

Moreover, Introvigne’s article omits critical nuance. The court did not state that MIVILUDES’ allegations, involving coercion, underreporting of crimes, and psychological control, were false. It merely found that certain passages lacked sufficient legal framing under administrative standards. The broader concern, that Jehovah’s Witnesses exert social and familial pressure and obstruct free association, remains firmly documented and under active government scrutiny.

Sending comfort to Barbara Anderson

On February 28th, 2025, in a hospital facility outside of Nashville, TN, Joe Anderson passed away at 91 years old, spending 65 beautiful years with Barbara.

Joe’s warmth and unwavering support were visible in every story Barbara shared, in every cause they championed side by side. His presence will be missed, but his kindness and quiet strength will linger in the hearts of all who knew him. May Barbara find comfort in the memories of their life together and in the love that surrounds her now, from those who admired their advocacy and her hard work.

Closing comment from Miss Usato

Massimo Introvigne has been an apologist for high-control religious movements for years. He twists legal semantics into propaganda victories. The real story isn’t that MIVILUDES lost, it’s that France is refusing to back down. MIVILUDES continues to operate under full mandate from the French government. Its reports remain a cornerstone for European policymakers studying sectarian abuse.

This moment in France is not merely a bureaucratic maneuver… It is a moral reckoning. For too long, high-control religious organizations have hidden coercion behind the banner of faith. France’s stance signals that psychological abuse and civic harm are not religious rights.

Barbara Anderson, AVOIDJW, and many other advocates stand with MIVILUDES, French officials, and all survivors who continue to speak truth to power.

The attempt to weaponize a court’s technical ruling into a PR campaign shows how desperate the Watchtower’s defenders have become. Norway, Japan, Denmark, Australia, Sweden, Russia, and other countries have seen how this Organization really operates. They know the tide is turning.