Demonstrators maintain placards studying “we don’t flip our backs on violences” (L) and “feminicides, not yet one more” (R) throughout a protest to sentence violence towards girls, known as by feminist organisations two days previous to the worldwide day for the elimination of violence towards girls, in Paris, on November 23, 2024. (Photograph by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP)
Tens of hundreds demonstrated in main French cities Saturday towards violence focusing on girls, as campaigners push for the nation to study from a mass rape trial that has shocked the general public.
The prosecution within the southern metropolis Avignon is in its remaining levels for 51 males, together with one who drugged his spouse over the course of a decade and dozens of others charged with accepting his invites to abuse her at their residence.
Out on the road, “the extra of us there are, the extra seen we’re, that is everybody’s enterprise, not simply girls,” stated Peggy Plou, an elected official from the Indre-et-Loire area in western France who had made the journey to Paris.
Hundreds of individuals marched within the capital alone, largely girls however together with some kids and males. Police put the turnout there at 12,500, whereas organisers stated 80,000.
Police sources stated 35,000 folks had turned out throughout the nation, whereas organisers put the determine at 100,000.
A whole bunch additionally turned out in different main cities together with Marseille within the south, Lille within the northeast and Rennes within the northwest. Native officers in Bordeaux, within the southwest, put the turnout there at 1,600.
Many demonstrators carried indicators with variations on the slogan “Disgrace should change sides”, popularised by the plaintiff within the Avignon trial, Gisele Pelicot.
She has turn out to be a feminist hero for selecting public hearings in her case fairly than a trial behind closed doorways, regardless of their painful content material.
Legislation reform
“A regulation about consent have to be put in place in a short time. Simply because somebody doesn’t say one thing, doesn’t imply that they agree” to sexual contact, stated Marie-Claire Abiker, 78, a retired nurse who marched in Paris.
France’s authorized definition of rape calls it “any act of sexual penetration… by violence, constraint, threats or shock” however contains no language about consent — a key demand of ladies’s rights teams particularly for the reason that MeToo motion launched within the late 2010s.
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“In 2018, there have been principally solely girls (demonstrating). In the present day there are, let’s say, 30 p.c males. That’s actually nice information,” stated Amy Bah, a member of the NousToutes (All of us girls) feminist group protesting in Lille.
“I really feel like that is my enterprise too, we every have our function to play, particularly males,” stated Arnaud Garcette, 38, on the Marseille demonstration within the metropolis’s historic port together with his two kids.
“We’re on the supply of the issue, and on the supply of the options too,” he added.
The demonstrations, known as by greater than 400 marketing campaign teams, come two days earlier than the Worldwide Day for the Elimination of Violence Towards Girls on Monday.
Equality Minister Salima Saa has promised “concrete and efficient” measures to coincide with the worldwide day.
In response to a report in Sunday’s Tribune Dimanche weekly, Prime Minister Michel Barnier will announce measures together with elevated coaching for cops and extra help for victims of home violence who go away their residence.
The campaigners who organized Saturday’s protests are calling for extra far-reaching measures, together with a devoted 2.6 billion-euro ($2.7 billion) price range and a stronger authorized framework to sort out the issue.
Throughout his first time period as French president, Emmanuel Macron vowed to prioritise the reason for equality between women and men and to work to get rid of violence towards girls.
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