A group of nine women's organizations are planning a press conference Friday to pressure Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. to continue to press his case against the French politician, who resigned as head of the International Monetary Fund after his arrest. The district attorney last week raised concerns that the African immigrant had lied about her past and possibly about what happened in Mr. Strauss-Kahn's Sofitel hotel room in May.

"We want prosecution," said Zenaida Mendez, president of the National Dominican Women's Caucus.

They are also asking the New York Post to retract its story about the housekeeper reportedly working as a prostitute and to issue an apology. The woman is suing the tabloid for defamation.

"Even if she was a hooker, it doesn't mean she can be raped," Ms. Mendez said.

Women's groups like the city's chapter of the National Organization for Women had been slow to come to the defense of the hotel worker. Publicly they said that a woman need not be a saint to be the victim of sexual assault.

"All kinds of women are raped," said Sonia Ossorio, president of the city's chapter of NOW. "Rape is now and has always been epidemic in societies across the world. That's a fact. So women who are liars, women who are nuns and women who are mothers are also rape victims."

But the organization has not yet taken that message to the streets, as it did when a jury acquitted two New York City police officers charged with rape.