Thousands of people protest in Paris and Rome against sexual violence and femicides
▲ In the French capital, protesters showed solidarity with rape victim Gisèle Pélicot.Photo Ap
Ap
La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, November 24, 2024, p. 18
Paris. Thousands of protesters gathered in Paris and Rome to protest against femicides and sexual and sexist violence, ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, celebrated every November 25.
In Paris, large crowds of women and men marched waving purple banners denouncing gender violence and defending women’s reproductive rights.
Protesters expressed concern about a possible setback in women’s rights in the wake of Donald Trump’s election victory in the United States. They also expressed solidarity for Gisèle Pélicot, whom her husband drugged for 10 years to be raped by dozens of men contacted on the Internet about 200 times.
Society must change its attitude towards rape, Pélicot urged in the macro judgment which has been celebrated in France since September 2.
Unfortunately, anyone can be a perpetrator of violence: it can be our siblings, our parents, our colleagues, our bosses. I think that’s the big impact for people.expressed Maelle Noir, representative of the feminist collective Nous Toutes, which translates as All of Us.
There is no typical profile of who the rapist could be and there is no typical profile of who the victim could be.he stated.
Protest organizers demanded an increase in government spending to combat sexual and sexist violence and promote gender equality.
In Rome, activists held a protest in which they appeared partially naked and covered with balaclavas, in a gesture that evoked the action of the Iranian student Ahoo Daryaei, who stripped off her clothes in front of a university in Tehran as an act of resistance.
The United Nations designated November 25 to commemorate the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, in order to raise awareness about the attacks that women face and the invisibility that surrounds the magnitude and nature of this problem.
