More than 1,000 protesters gathered in Paris on Saturday, demanding tougher government measures to prevent men from killing their wives, girlfriends, partners or former partners, reports FRANCE 24.
France has registered more than 70 alleged “femicides” so far this year, according to a Facebook group tracking them, up from official numbers in previous years. A growing number of voices are demanding action, including closing judicial loopholes that have allowed authorities to ignore warnings.
“We are calling on the interior minister to convene all the regional prefects and make sure that no woman will ever walk into a police station and have someone reject her request to file a complaint,” said Caroline De Haas, one of the protest organizers.
“Why do you stay silent? Femicides aren’t an inevitability. We don’t have any more time, we want answers now,” she said.
The protesters observed 74 seconds of “noise and anger” to mark the 74 alleged femicides reported this year.
Such killings often involve women who had already reported their attackers to police. A former women’s rights minister is demanding an internal government investigation into how police handled the cases.
In January, a man stabbed and killed his ex-wife, 34-year-old Gülçin Kaplan, in broad daylight. Kaplan had filed five complaints against her former partner.
“I ask the president … How much is a woman’s life worth in 2019?” demanded Muriel Robin, an actress who has been active in combating domestic abuse, at Saturday’s demonstration.
In 2017, Emmanuel Macron declared that gender equality would be a key issue of his presidency. Last October, the French government announced five measures to combat domestic violence. It created an online platform to help victims report abuse, reinforced funding for a domestic violence hotline, and launched a TV campaign to raise awareness around the issue.
Critics say that the measures don’t go far enough, however. Protesters at Paris’s Place de la République called for more measures to restrain abusive men and more shelters for abused women. Some want every police station to include a specialist in handling violence against women.