Five young women crowd the corner of rue Cassette in the chic 6th arrondissement of Paris. On this Monday evening, laughter bursts from the bars. Four of them brushed the wall with glue. The last one watches. The movements are precise, the exchanges of nervous look. On Sunday, the police intervened and the team of splicers had to stop their work. They were about to display the testimony of Nadia *, victim of rape between the ages of 8 and 12 by her chess teacher in Haute-Corse. In February, the man was sentenced to the maximum sentence, 20 years' imprisonment for rape of a minor girl under the age of 15 and touching other young girls.
The teenager is now 17 years old. "Barely younger than us," says Anne-Marie, lips trembling. Tonight, again, she dedicates it to Nadia. On the walls of the capital, the student has chosen to display this quote: "I hope my story will help you". The collective "I was" on Tuesday filed a file consisting of fourteen complaints of rape and sexual assault. "Among them, five are closed cases that we have relaunched," explains Lina Marini, one of the organizers of the movement. An operation that the collective intends to reproduce every week.
"I knew it was going to set me free," Nadia tells us about the demonstration organized in Ajaccio last Sunday against violence against women. The rally gathered 400 people according to the authorities, 600 according to the organizers. On June 21, there were 300 in Bastia. Unpublished gatherings born from the explosion of testimonies affixed to the hashtag #Iwas, which appeared on Twitter at the beginning of June in the United States. "I used to feel like I was alone before, especially in Corsica, where we don't talk about it," says the teenager.
An observation shared by Sabine, a young woman of Sicilian origin engaged on the island against violence against women and anti-mafia. "Anonymity does not exist in Corsica," she insists. We know immediately which family you are, we are going to pat her on the shoulder: you are going to tell your cousin to calm down because she is hurting my family. Among the victims she meets on a daily basis, she notes a process of "invisibility": slander, shame, pressure. Until exile. Jacquie, a 50-year-old woman, ended up leaving Corsica - direction Paris - for fear of reprisals. In 2010, she filed a complaint against a caregiver for sexual assault and went alone to court. "He said he was going to strike me to kill me," she says. His own family reiterates the threats. "The omerta reigned, I was very afraid, I had to be quiet," recalls Jacquie, also a victim of incest.
Thanks to social networks, she follows each gathering, retweets testimonials, commits. On the night of Saturday to Sunday, posters were pasted in his honor on the quays of the Seine in Paris and in Ajaccio. “I am proud of this freedom of speech. It is a form of rehabilitation for me too. Shame changes sides. "
From the mainland to the island, Sabine is active. His goal: to highlight what has long been hidden on a folded island. Sneakers on feet, brush in hand, blonde hair up, she remembers her first collage. Aged 30, she was marked by Julie Dioub's feminicide in March 2019 in L'Ile-Rousse in Haute-Corse. "The complaints, the social services, the gendarmerie, nothing worked," she is indignant. Passing through Paris, his eyes shine under the pale light near a poster: "Tonight, we're sticking for the living."
With #Iwas, “the safety myth is shattered”
Maria *, a 17-year-old high school student, first saw tweets appear on her account, watching an avalanche of figures and testimonies scroll past on her screen. And this time, it's at home, in Corsica, far from the Hollywood #Metoo. In turn, she feels the need to testify for the first time: #IwasCorsica 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. Seven years in which she has been touched by her father. The dark teenage girl. In August 2018, she confides in three friends, rings the alarm. A mother contacts her and helps her. She is filing a complaint. "If she hadn't saved me, I wouldn't be here to talk about it!" “, Chants Maria at the demonstration on Sunday. From the resonance of the networks to the cries of the processions, the teenager took the plunge. With her face uncovered, she overcomes her fear of tarnishing her "reputation" in villages "where everyone knows everyone" - recurrent expressions in the mouths of those questioned.
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Laora Paoli Pandolfi, a 34-year-old Parisian illustrator of Corsican origin, is behind this island hashtag. Surprised by the number of testimonies from Corsica, she decides to list them on a Twitter account. The young generation, especially, seizes it. "It had a snowball effect," she says. Corsica looks like a closed environment, like sport or cinema, we are afraid of getting burnt out ». With one particularity: "The myth of security which, today, is shattering". The omnipresent families create the illusion of guaranteed protection. “When it happens in a vacuum in the family, it's all the harder to talk about it. This is the other side of the coin, ”emphasizes the illustrator.
Many victims do not file complaints
A commitment that resonates with the various battles shared by the majority of the victims interviewed. Like Andria *, a 23-year-old girl in Paris who has set up a discussion project on sexual violence. From the age of 10 to 15, the sociology student was sexually abused by a young person from her village. Like many victims, she did not file a complaint, deeming the justice system "ineffective" and a source of potential threats. "I used patriarchy" quips the young woman. Surrounded by her family, she asked her grandfather to bring letters to the attacker, an attempt to get him to think about his actions. Determined to return to Corsica, she intends to continue her awareness-raising action.
For the student, the small size of the villages can play a role favorable to her cause. “When you are 150 in a village, perhaps as much as in a Parisian building, you should use this proximity as a protection instead of a technique for keeping quiet. From impunity to speech, there is a long way to go. If complaints from victims remain rare, "48 libel complaints have been filed in Haute-Corse following the publication of dozens of names of potential sexual assailants or rapists," said Bastia's prosecutor Caroline Tharot. A 49th was also filed in Corse-du-Sud.
* First names have been changed
