Running against violence against women in Val-de-Marne: record participation in the Mirabal, and more and more men

Monday 25th November 2024 05:55 AM

For Élodie and Solène (photo on the front), this participation in the 10 km was a first. With radiant smiles, the two colleagues crossed the finish line, quickly joined by a third who had taken up the 5 km challenge a few dozen minutes before. “The worst was around the 7th kilometer”, confides Solène. “We work in the department’s social service, this cause speaks to us”, motivates Élodie. This Sunday, a dozen members of the service participated, others came to encourage them.

Many non-sporting organizations have thus set up teams. The town of Saint-Maurice brought 23 people, rejoices its mayor, Igor Semo, before starting the commitment march. The prefecture, too, set up a team for the first time. The University of Créteil again sent people. Businesses too. However, it was a sports club, Asphalte 94 (based in Perreux-sur-Marne and which trains regularly at Tremblay) which won the cup for the greatest number of participants: around sixty, mainly in the 10km.

^{The Asphalte 94 club is enjoying its cup and its medals. On the left in the photo: Karine Bastier, deputy president of Val-de-Marne in charge of gender equality; Isabel Adnot, president of Tremplin 94 and Laurent Jeanne, mayor of Champigny (who also ran).}

While the edition could not be held in 2023, the Mirabal 2024 was highly mobilized, with nearly a thousand runners and several hundred participants in the commitment walk.

Finally as many men as women in the race

“Over the years, there are also more and more men participating. Today, we are 50/50 in the race, which was not the case before, although there are generally more men in the races sports. Now the challenge is to have as many men in the engagement march,” plans Farida Dammene-Debbih, director of the Tremplin 94 SOS Femmes association.

^{Farida Dammene-Debbih, director and founder of Tremplin 94 SOS Femmes}

A race mobilizes more than a conference

A long journey of awareness for the association, created in 1995. “We started by creating hotlines, day care and accommodation, and then in 2010, we wanted to organize an event to raise awareness more widely. We first thought of a conference, but that would only have attracted people already committed to the cause. As we had female runners on the team, we decided to rely on sport as a vector”summarizes the director.

Since the first edition in 2010, the event has grown year after year. “We started by organizing the 5 km, then the 10 km, then we associated the little ones with a race for children, then we created an information village so as not to lose the meaning of the approach which is to inform, raise awareness, explain how to detect violence”, she insists.

Get out of isolation and shame

For the women supported by the association, this moment also constitutes a joyful interlude. Some are part of the 80 volunteers who support the associative team of around twenty members to organize the event. “It is important that women can take their part in the operation and organization. They were victims for a moment, but being a victim is not an identity in itself. Participating in the organization and seeing that there are so many people allows them to escape from isolation, shame and guilt. And to realize that it is a fact of society.”

See the results of the Mirabal 2024

Why Mirabal? The story of the Mirabal sisters