PARIS , — Tens of thousands marched through Paris and other French cities Saturday to demand more government action to stop violence against women. These protests are being held amid growing outrage over the deaths of French women by their partners. French women are also speaking out more frequently about sexual harassment and abuse.
Protesters marched through Paris in front of a large banner that read “Stop Sexist and Sexual Violence.”
“We are always blaming the women,” Parisian protestor Ghislaine Gireire Revalier stated, while expressing sympathy for women trapped in domestic violence. “What we often forget is the phenomenon that one can be held in one’s hands… slowly it becomes like a spider wrapping you in its web.”
According to groups fighting violence against women, at least 101 women were killed in France by their partner or expartner this year. That’s about one woman per three days. According to a 2017 national study, more than 220,000 women suffer sexual or physical abuse from their partners each year.
Activists have urged President Emmanuel Macron to allocate 1 billion euros ($1.1billion) annually to combat violence against women. This is in addition to 360 million ($406million) that was spent to create shelters.
Demonstrator Meryll Le Goff stated that “there have been measures that have been implemented like the telephone for persons in serious danger,” which is a special phone equipped with a push button to alert police. According to the Justice Ministry, more than 2,500 of these phones were deployed in the country in September.
Le Goff stated that there isn’t enough to go around. “Measures half-done, men detained temporarily or even imprisoned and then released without any further measures… that’s what the problem is.”
These protests are part of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
