IN PICTURES | Violence against women: demonstrations all over France

They are calling for a “start” and a “comprehensive framework law”: in France, from Paris to Marseille, thousands of people – many women, but also men – marched on Saturday to demand a “start” against the violence committed against them. Women’s.

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“The more we are, the more visible we will be, it’s everyone’s business, not just women,” says Peggy Plou, a local elected official from central France interviewed in Paris in a procession of 80,000 people according to the organizers, 12,500 according to the authorities.

These purple-colored demonstrations brought together at least 20,000 people throughout France according to prefecture figures, with organizers claiming 100,000 participants nationally.

In Marseille (south), some 800 people, according to the authorities, including many young people, gathered in the Old Port to denounce sexist violence.

“Let’s break the law of silence, shame changes sides” or “No means no”, could we read on signs brandished by the demonstrators or placed on the ground.

“I feel concerned, we all have a role to play, men in particular,” explains Arnaud Garcette, 38, who works in development aid. “We are at the source of the problem and at the source of the solutions too,” adds the man who came as a family, with his two children.

A little further on, a woman carries a sign where she has crossed out the phrase “protect your daughters” to highlight the slogan “Educate your sons”.

“My aunt was murdered by her ex-partner 25 years ago in what was called a crime of passion at the time. This is no longer possible!” indicates Sophie Régnier Carbonnell, 52, in Toulouse (south-west) where the prefecture recorded 950 demonstrators and the NousToustes31 association between three and four times more.

These protests took place two days before the International Day Against Violence Against Women, Monday.

«Violence patriarcale»

This mobilization against all forms of violence (sexual, physical, psychological, economic, etc.) is being held this year in France in a particular context, in the middle of the trial of around fifty men accused of having raped Gisèle Pelicot while she was unconscious, drugged without her knowledge by her husband in Mazan, a small town in the south of France.

This trial with international resonance, where the indictment begins on Monday scheduled to last three days, “shows that the culture of rape is anchored in society, like violence against women”, underlined Amandine Cormier, of the The Feminist Strike organization, during a press conference on Wednesday in Paris.

“Patriarchal violence is exercised everywhere, in homes, in workplaces, places of study, in the street, in transport, in healthcare establishments, absolutely everywhere in society,” he said. she added.

The call for mobilization was signed by more than 400 organizations and personalities, including the singer Angèle and the actress and director Judith Godrèche.

“Successive governments have multiplied the promises, but the means are paltry and decreasing, political action is almost non-existent,” deplore the signatories, who call for a “real start”.

In November 2017, a few months after his accession to the French presidency, Emmanuel Macron declared equality between women and men “the great cause of the five-year term”, with the “first pillar” of the fight “for the complete elimination of violence done to women.

An emergency call number, 3919, for women victims of violence and those around them, has been set up as well as “serious danger” telephones and anti-contact bracelets in particular.

Measures welcomed by associations defending women’s rights who however consider them insufficient.

They are demanding a total budget of 2.6 billion euros per year and a “comprehensive framework law” to replace current legislation that they consider “fragmented and incomplete”.

At the beginning of November, the Secretary of State for Gender Equality, Salima Saa, promised that she would announce “concrete and effective measures” by November 25.

These measures will aim, among other things, to “improve the systems” for reaching out to victims, particularly in rural areas, and to strengthen the reception and care of victims, she said.