In Marseille, Amiens, Paris and Reunion Island, thousands of people demonstrated against violence against women on Saturday November 23, two days before the International Day dedicated to this cause. On the signs, several messages: “so that our lives are no longer classified without follow-up”, “in ten feminicides it’s Christmas”or even “clothes do not make rape”.
In Paris, in the procession, anger is expressed against the government: since Emmanuel Macron came to power, more than a thousand feminicides have occurred, numerous posters recall. According to the associations present, the unions and left-wing political parties, “successive governments have made many promises but the means are paltry and decreasing”. In the crowd, Apolline, 23, expresses her anger. “What drives me crazy is that we should have a capacity for training and mobilization on the part of our political figures to raise awareness on the issues of sexist and sexual violence.”
“Unfortunately, currently we see that this is not at all a priority subject for Emmanuel Macron.”
Apolline, 23 years oldat franceinfo
The objective of this mobilization is therefore to demand that the government strengthen policies for the prevention of violence and education for equality as well. Aïcha, 34, wants to believe in other possibilities. “I believe in a world where things could be organized differently, where little boys would not be taught to be violent and girls to endure and where, as a result, a world where there would be neither traumatic incest nor traumatic rape, nor permanent aggression, that's what we mean by the word 'patriarchy',” she confides.
Ce “patriarchy” is, according to these demonstrators, at the heart of the Mazan rape trial which is taking place before the Vaucluse criminal court in Avignon with an indictment expected on Monday, November 25. Hélène believes that this trial opened her eyes. “This case is horrible, unspeakably violent. Thanks to her courage in making this trial public, she allows public opinion and all of civil society to say that it exists. The fact of saying that we can have our neighbor, the teacher, the coach, the therapist, who can abuse a woman in her sleep.”
According to the collective “All of Us”, the profile of the 51 men accused of rape under chemical subjugation confirms what feminist associations have been repeating for decades: the perpetrators of violence are not monsters, they are men from our entourage and “shame must change sides“.
