Thousands of people demonstrated on Saturday in many French cities, including Paris, Bordeaux, Marseille and Lille, against violence against women. More than 400 organizations and personalities called for protests, AFP reported.
In Paris, the participants of the protest moved from the Gare du Nord train station to the Bastille. One of the protesters carried a banner reading “Subway every two minutes, rape every seven minutes”.
Let’s break the silence
“The more we are, the more visible we are. It affects everyone, not just women,” local politician Peggy Plou told AFP in Paris.
According to the police, around 800 people gathered in the old port of Marseille. The participants of the protest had banners with the inscriptions “Let’s break the silence, shame must change sides” or “No means no”.
“In 2018, we were almost all women here. Today there are, say, 30 percent men. This is really great news,” said Amy Bah of the feminist group NousToutes, who took part in the protest in Lille.
The nationwide protests took place two days before the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which falls on November 25. This year was marked by the trial of the ex-husband of 71-year-old Gisele Pelicot and dozens of other men who are being prosecuted for raping her over ten years.
Public trial
In the meantime, Pelicot has become a symbol of the fight against sexual violence in France – among other things, because she insisted that the trial be public and also demanded the publication of the videos taken by her ex-husband.
Associations such as Planning familial, Fondation des femmes and #Nustoutes are calling for the current “fragmented and incomplete” rape legislation to be replaced by a new “comprehensive framework law”, as well as the allocation of €2.6 billion to combat violence against women.
