Two days before the end of the "Grenelle of domestic violence" initiated by the government, a dense crowd of women and men - 49,000 people, according to estimates of the firm Occurrence mandated by a collective of media - protested in Paris, Saturday, November 23, against violence against women at the call of the feminist collective #NousToutes. Purple, the traditional feminist color, was de rigueur in the procession and placards displayed various slogans: "Feminicide, to whom the turn", "Ras the rape", "Patriarchy? The cup is full" ...
"This is an opportunity to meet and to cry out our anger at the structural sexism and inequalities between men and women," says Manon, 19, at France 24. The student in sociology came to the place. Opera despite the capricious weather. His mother, Sophie, 59, too. The retiree "is tired of hearing every three days that a woman dies under the blows of her spouse."
Since the beginning of the year, at least 116 women have been killed by their spouse or former spouse, according to an AFP count. The collective "Femicide by companions or ex" counts, for its part, 137 feminicides.
"There is tired of a woman being insulted, beaten or killed because it is a woman," says Frederique, 60, a retired in the procession that goes to the Nation. Manon finds, for its part, "intolerable in 2019 the fact of having to wear appropriate clothing or that a glass condom" (to fight against the drug of rape in the evening, Ed).
"Stop this scourge"
In the procession, a group that sticks posters against feminicides makes its appearance. Women dressed in black carry placards on which the names and ages of women killed by men can be read since the beginning of the year. Some protesters also have tears of blood made up under the eyes.
Marguerite Stern, an ex-Femen director of podcasts who initiated this initiative of collages in the Parisian streets, explains that "the fight continues" and states: "It's good to meet up with women in the street from time to time. time."
She has little expectation of the announcements that could be made at the end of the "Grenelle of domestic violence", saying that "its conclusions come to validate what the associations were already demanding. still no action. " The collective #NousToutes asks for several months that the state releases one billion euros to "fight effectively against domestic violence".
This is also the case of Ilham, 28, who claims "financial means" for social workers to "stop this plague". This social worker in a shelter for women victims of domestic violence "hopes solutions to the problem." On a daily basis, its structure hosts women victims of violence forced to leave home or work.
Ilham welcomes the measure of the removal bracelets - voted in mid-October by the National Assembly - a device to geolocate and keep away spouses and violent ex-spouses by triggering a signal, with a remoteness perimeter fixed by a judge. "It is a concrete solution in the emergency that could improve the situation," she says, before adding: "But it is in the change of mentalities that the solution to violence against women rests."
"Let's stop saying 'Dad help mom'"
The education of the younger generations and a public awareness of the problem are indeed solutions frequently mentioned by the people met in the event. "It is necessary to educate, it goes through concrete actions like not to legitimize the blows that can give the little boys when they are children", explains Sophie. His daughter, Manon, emphasizes that "it is necessary to have an awareness of the greatest number and an education of the youngest, because they have not yet internalized certain norms".
For Frédérique, who has a career in education, "education within families and within the school is the basis". According to her, the change must take place on a daily basis: it is necessary for example "to stop generating games for children or learning cooking". Above all, she wants us to stop unconsciously making differences between boys and girls, to stop saying, "Dad help mum." No, Daddy and mom are both doing housework. "
In the professional context, Ilham intervenes in colleges and high schools on violence against women. But "it is at the request of institutions that takes place this cycle of a few days, once a year," she says. Before adding: "Given the urgency of the situation, it should be in the establishment project."
For Marguerite Stern, it is ultimately "for women to mobilize civil society, their relatives, to create a less sexist atmosphere".