Cotonou (AFP)

By denouncing the sexual harassment of which they claim to be victims in their media, two women journalists from Benin provoked a lively debate in society which shook up to the highest levels of the state.

"I was fed up with it. I was fed up with it. Year after year, I was harassed, but this time was too much. I looked for help everywhere in my professional environment and I have not had one, "says Angéla Kpeidja, journalist at ORTB, the national television of Benin, in an interview with AFP.

It all started with a Facebook publication, in which the journalist claims that "sexual harassment still has a place" in the Beninese media.

In this widely shared post, this 46-year-old woman particularly regrets that, among her colleagues, "everyone's religion has become silence in frustration".

Bouncing back on the affair, Priscile Kpogbemabou, former journalist for the private television channel Etélé, followed suit by denouncing in a video published on social networks, the practices of press owners towards women.

"It is rare to have women who decide to testify with open faces ... You have to be guts," said Zakiath Latoundji, president of the Union of Media Professionals of Benin.

- 'Second rank and modesty' -

It is indeed a "fairly rare fact", underlines Karen Ganyé Gbédji, socio-anthropologist in Cotonou: "These women decided to take their suffering head on" in a society under the influence "of the patriarchal regime and the customs and customs which impose on women the second rank and modesty ".

Indeed, although the majority of reactions have been rather positive, the two women have been the target of numerous attacks on social networks.

A week after this historic denunciation, Angéla Kpeidja looks somewhat depressed and her face tired.

"I knew there would be voices to say things about myself, but I said to myself, it has to stop," she says, "I had nothing more to lose."

"Why would we want, for an equal qualification, that the woman sleeps with her hierarchical superior before working or knowing a promotion? It must be said no," she says.

The voice of Angela Kpeidja was also heard and after her denunciation, the deputy editor-in-chief of the chain was suspended and an investigation was opened by the justice.

- Unpacking -

If harassment in the workplace is not specific to the media world, Zakiath Latoundji recognizes that it is a "reality".

"Formally complaints", his union did not receive any. But "when you talk to women in the media, there are unpackings that you receive".

Since last March, the union has been working on setting up a mechanism and a legal unit to listen, support and accompany journalists who are victims of harassment.

But the response to these denunciations that shook all of Benin came from even higher.

A few weeks before the municipal elections scheduled for May 17, President Patrice Talon invited himself into the debate and received in audience the one who denounced the facts and some of his line managers.

"I became interested in the subject, convinced that many Beninese women in the course of their work may be subject to these reprehensible practices," wrote the president on his Facebook page.

"The act taken by Ms. Angela Kpeidja will be the trigger for a new dawn to ensure that victims of sexual abuse are better protected," said the head of state.

Patrice Talon, criticized by his opponents for his authoritarianism, stood out from his predecessors and from the conservatism of Beninese society, and struck hard with the female electorate.

"The word of the Head of State is a strong word," rejoices Me Huguette Bokpè ​​Gnacadja, lawyer and activist for women's rights.

"The media are supposed to accompany us in our fight to combat violence against women," she worries, but if "it happens" in a national media, "we have reason to be To ask questions".

© 2020 AFP