Some three hundred bundled up people gathered, then strolled this Saturday evening through Perpignan, in tribute to the hundred women who have succumbed to domestic violence since the start of the year, in France.
A few minutes before the launch of the Christmas lights, at the foot of fir trees garlanded in the colors of happiness, motionless bodies lie on the square in front of Place République in Perpignan. They play Edith, Mathilda, Adélaïde, Nelly, Karine, Djeneba, Nisrine… one of the hundred women killed by their spouse since January 1, 2023. On the microphone, the voice of Katia Mingo, member of the Women’s Rights Collective in the department, lists the fatal violence suffered by the unfortunate women. Slit throats, beaten to death, poisoned, suffocated, electrocuted, shot, stabbed with knives… Chilling words, unbearable images which struck the approximately three hundred people brought together by the noble cause. Say stop to domestic violence which, despite promises and measures, is increasing inexorably.
Raped in 2021, I then met a man who beat me
“For five years, we have deplored 848 feminicides, including around a hundred already for this year 2023 and 213,000 miraculous victims”, denounce elected officials, associations and unions who came to support the demonstration. Andréa, 31, a young Bolivian, alert bracelet on her wrist, is one of these survivors. A student in international business, she arrived in France, in Pau precisely to pursue her master’s degree. First meeting “with evil”she says, Andréa is raped in 2021 by a tenant in her building. “I had no experience of violence, I found myself stunned, shocked, as if with a hemorrhage in my head that did not stop flowing”she testifies, remembering the burst of courage which led her to file a complaint against her attacker. “It’s essential to go see the police even if we think they won’t believe us”asserts the young woman who suffers the worst cruelties of existence.
Placed under an electronic bracelet of “major victim”
Two years later, in July 2023, she formed a relationship with a man that would prove toxic. “At first, he was nice to me, we were dating until the day I realized that he had put a tracker on my phone. The next morning, after an evening spent with friends, he beat me up. beaten, broke my bike, my cell phone. The rest was a real nightmare until I found the strength to run away from him.” Andréa filed a complaint again, left Pau last January and took refuge in Perpignan. “My ex-partner harasses me”, she confides. For his safety, the courts placed him under an electronic bracelet. The alarm, which geolocates her, records voices and alerts the police station in the event of an attack, never leaves her wrist. “And when I go home, I lock myself in and put chairs in front of the front door to block it”she describes, frightened by the slightest sound of footsteps or screams.
Supported by France Victimes and APEX, Andréa tries to rebuild her life with a psychiatrist and psychologist, while also participating in theater and sport workshops. “I manage to always be with people older than me, they reassure me”, she confesses. This Saturday, she was surrounded by many people as she marched in a procession through the streets of the city against this terrible and incessant violence against women. While, often, children are watching.