Dozens of demonstrations are taking place across France amid mass rape trials

From Marseille to Paris they are calling for a ‘shock’ and a ‘comprehensive framework law’. More than 400 organizations and figures called for demonstrations against violence (sexual, physical, psychological and economic) against women on Saturday, November 23. These actions follow the shock wave caused by the extraordinary mass rape trial in southern Francein which around fifty men are accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot while she was unconscious and drugged by her husband without her knowledge.

According to the police, 1,500 people braved the rain in Rennes, and almost a thousand in Lille. In Bordeaux, 1,600 people demonstrated, according to the prefecture, and 3,000 according to the organizers.

According to the police prefecture, around 800 people gathered in Marseille around noon in the Old Port to denounce sexist and sexual violence. Signs waved by the protesters, many of them young in age, or placed on the ground read: “Break the law of silence, shame is switching sides,” “No means no” and “Educate your sons.”

In Paris, organizers claimed 80,000 people attended. Among them was Beatriz Beloqui, dressed in a purple hat knitted for the occasion by her mother, with a dozen activists at the Gare du Nord station to voice their ‘alarm cry’.

‘It’s not me, it’s not my clothes, it’s not the place’

Beloqui, who has been coming to the #NousToutes marches every year since 2019 – always with the same optimism – hopes that the rape trial in Pelicot will open the eyes of public authorities and “bring men out of their silence”. “I hope that the conviction will be proportionate and that it will be accompanied by a real political awakening,” she said.

Before the departure of the Parisian procession, the crowd, which was already quite large, quietly dispersed. In the middle a performance was announced by the group Le Bruit Qui Court, which started a choreography to applause. “The guilty party is not me, nor my clothes, nor the place,” the dancers chanted. “The guilty one is you, it’s the police, it’s the state, it’s society, it’s the whole patriarchy.”

Natacha, 26, came to the demonstration alone, but “with my anger and rage.” The rape case in recent weeks has “increased her anger tenfold.” This high school teacher, who tries to teach the idea of ​​consent to her students through “simple, everyday actions,” came to “show that we (women) are here, that we will always be here, and that we won’t go away. to give up.”

“To scare the masculinists” is the main reason why Françoise Guichard joined the demonstration. “The dikes have opened,” said the woman, who added that she is “shocked” by the increase in masculinist comments, especially from the US since the election of Donald Trump. At 70, she is “afraid of the future,” she says, recalling the echo of the 1978 rape trial in Aix-en-Provence, which led to a change in the law to better define rape. She hopes the current process will lead to further progress: “What else do they (men) need to respond?” she asked.

400 organizations

This trial, with its international resonance, “shows that rape culture is rooted in society, just like violence against women,” Amandine Cormier of Grève Féministe said at a press conference in Paris on Wednesday. “Patriarchal violence takes place everywhere: in homes, in the workplace, in study places, on the streets, in transport, in healthcare institutions.”

The call for mobilization was signed by more than 400 organizations (including Fondation des Femmes, Planning Familial and #NousToutes) and public figures (such as Angèle, Judith Godreche and Vanessa Springora). The trade unions were also present.

“Successive governments have stepped up their promises, but resources are ridiculous and dwindling. Political action is virtually non-existent,” the signatories lamented. In November 2017, President Emmanuel Macron had made equality between women and men a “key cause” of his term, with the fight “for the complete elimination of violence against women” as the “first pillar”.

Groups are calling for an annual budget of €2.6 billion

An emergency number, 39-19, was set up for female victims of violence and those around them, as well as the “Serious Danger Telephone” system and anti-aggression bracelets. These measures are welcomed by women’s rights groups, which nevertheless view them as insufficient and are urging the president to change course.

Recalling the President’s support for actor Gérard Depardieu, accused of sexual assaultand the Senate’s adoption of a bill against gender transitions among minors, #NousToutes member Yéléna Mandengué called for a “shock” on Saturday. Mandengué said: “We are all concerned about gender violence.”

“Today we are very concerned about the financing of associations, offices are being closed,” Sarah Durocher, president of Family Planning, complained at the same press conference on Wednesday.

The groups call for a total budget of 2.6 billion euros per year and an “integral framework law” to replace the current legislation, which they consider “fragmented and incomplete”.

“We have drawn up a list of 140 proposals to combat violence against women,” Elsa Labouret, spokeswoman for the association Osez le Féminisme!, said during the march in Paris. Labouret lamented a lack of ‘political will’ on the issue. Together with her, activist Céline Piques denounced the government’s ‘publicity announcements’ in the run-up to November 25, while ‘behind the scenes things are not changing’. “It’s all smoke and mirrors,” she said, explaining that the long-term demands that associations have made over the years are not being taken into account.

French Deputy Minister for Equality between Women and Men, Salima Saa, has promised “concrete and effective measures” by November 25. These measures will include “improving relief measures” for victims, especially in rural areas, and strengthening “the shelter and care of victims” through “training for frontline players”, she added.