Because the femicide of Assia B. questions the indifference of politicians

20. This is the number of femicides recorded by We All since the beginning of the year. Assia B., whose dismembered body was found in the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont on February 13, is the 19th woman to be killed because of her gender in 2023, according to the feminist collective’s tally.

It’s not news

Her husband, Youcef M., reported Assia B. missing on February 6, almost a week after he killed her. Since then, he has been circulating wanted notices on Facebook. After the discovery of the body by the park maintainers, the prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into “ murder, attack on the integrity of a corpse and concealment of a corpse on February 17th. Very quickly, the inconsistencies noted in Youcef M.’s speech had him designated as a suspect. He had been placed under surveillance, then in police custody, where he ended up confessing on February 24, 2023.

First place” various », the story was widely sensationalized with many sordid details. But the more the trail of femicide was confirmed, the more the murder of Assia B. seemed to sink into general (and systemic) indifference.

The political silence on feminicides

In an article dated February 17, the journalist of MediapartSarah Berthes denounces the silence of politicians on cases of femicide, recalling that the week in which the body of Assia B. was found, five women died at the hands of their spouses:

In 2022, according to government tally, a total of 122 women were killed, up from 102 the previous year, an increase of 20%. ” One Bataclan every year » , as summed up by feminist activists. So no, we won’t say the executive does nothing. Creation of reception places, launch of a parliamentary mission to improve the judicial treatment of violence, mobilization of the police and gendarmerie forces, experimentation in the treatment of perpetrators of domestic violence… It does it. But too little, too slowly and with insufficient means. On the other hand, the executive said nothing. And this silence is irrefutable proof of the weakness of his political will on the matter.

Sarah Berthes, Mediapart

The journalist takes the example of Spain, which, unlike France, ” name things“. If the figures of feminicides are not lower there, there is an effort by politicians to make the victims visible and show the extent of this violence:

In 2004, almost twenty years ago, Parliament [espagnol] unanimously adopted the first law in Europe making the sex of the victim an aggravating factor in the event of an assault. Since then, politicians from all sides have been talking about it “male violence” which our Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, tells him about “Domestic violence”and don’t miss the opportunity to remember that men are also victims of this violence… In Spain, every femicide receives extensive media coverage. In Spain, every femicide is an event.

Why, in France, is a feminicide not an event? Asks the reporter, who also takes note of this Emmanuel Macron’s last speech on this topic dates back to the presidential campaign, in the spring of 2022. Last year, however, 106 women were murdered by their spouse or ex-spouse, according to data from the collective Femicide by partner or ex . This represents 72% of femicides recorded in 2022 by We All, which also estimates that Last year 102 children were orphaned as a result of the feminicide.

As the feminist collective reminds us, Assia B. was also the mother of three children. Her murder therefore brings to 18 (at least) the number of children orphaned by a femicide this year.

The romanticization of feminicides

Rose Lamy, behind the Prepare for the fight account, also deplores a media treatment that romanticises the femicide of Assia B., particularly in the way the defendant’s defense words are conveyed without contextualization or nuance:

A mechanism that unfortunately is no exception. The association Dare feminism has been fighting in particular for many years against the term ” crime of passion “:” We also wish the media would stop talking about crimes of passion, jealous and rejected husbands. We need to put an end to the romantic crime myth “, they explained in an interview for our colleagues at France 3.

And Rose Lamy adds: “If everyone has the right to a defence, it becomes necessary to discuss ends and means, ethics, the general interest and respect for victims of gender-based violence.“.