Ivory Coast: self-defense course in Abidjan to help women victims of violence
Audio 01:29
The Ivorian Women's Rights League, Pojaf-Ci and the Mouvement femmes & parole organized a self-defense workshop on Saturday, December 4, 2021 to help women victims of violence to react to their attacker.
© François Hume-Ferkatadji / RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
On the occasion of the 16 days of activism on raising awareness of violence against women, many activities have been organized in the country since November 25.
At the Félix Houphouët Boigny University in Abidjan, several organizations organized a self-defense session on Saturday, December 4, while the latest figures show that the number of rapes and feminicides recorded in Abidjan is on the rise.
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With our correspondent in Abidjan
,
François Hume-Ferkatadji
Fists on guard, they are about twenty women dressed in an orange T-shirt - the color symbol of this fortnight of awareness - religiously listening to the advice of Diaby Moussa, Muay-Thai and Krav Maga trainer.
“
By keeping your power, you can hit harder than someone weighing 80 kilos.
He comes towards you, you attack, the first blow must make you doubt ...
"
Among the participants, many have already experienced a situation of violence, this is the case of Elodie N'Dri.
“
If I had already had these defense lessons, I might have reacted differently.
So, I believe that when I get out of here, it's clear that I would be ready to be able to get out of it in all situations.
"
Beyond technical learning, it is also a collective awareness, according to Meganne Boho, president of the Ivorian League for Women's Rights. “
We're not going to learn all the techniques in one or two hours, but that allows us to be able to tell ourselves that we can turn the tables, we can also learn a few gestures that can save our lives. It's a bit of a way of telling people that we are now going to take our destiny in hand.
"
Saturday morning in Abidjan, a march against gender-based violence brought together several hundred women.
Together, they denounced rape as a "
weapon of mass destruction
".
The Citizen NGO for the promotion of the rights of women, children and minorities, recorded 1,121 rapes for the municipality of Abidjan alone in 2020, and 416 feminicides.
That is more than one murder of a woman per day, in the economic capital.
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Ivory Coast
Women