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Poster campaign in Paris: "Women are not for sale"
For several weeks now, passers-by have been confronted with bitter truths on the house walls of Paris.
"Women scream. The state is silent" or: "She is not dressed like a slut. You think like a rapist" - a feminist poster campaign is currently attracting a lot of attention for messages like this.
The posters in street art style are made from white A4 sheets of paper.
They show individual capital letters which, side by side, make up slogans about rape, sexual harassment and femicides.
"In the beginning we addressed our messages to politicians and urged them to take action against domestic violence," says Marguerite Stern, 29, who initiated the campaign by distributing several posters around the city and posting photos of them on social networks.
While the government "didn't do anything concrete," Stern said, the posters gave many women a forum and helped change their approach to public spaces, says Stern.
"They help both those who put up the posters and those who just walk by and see the news because they feel like they are no longer alone."
"We were pelted with eggs"
Although France became the first country to pass a law punishing public sexual harassment in August 2018, women say they continue to face abuse, abuse and violence on the streets.
France also has the second highest femicide rate in Europe after Germany, according to data from the European Statistical Office.
Stern then texted: "Julie was killed on 03.03.2019 by her ex. She had filed five complaints."
A quarter of French women between 18 and 29 are afraid when they are on the street, more than 20 percent are molested at least once a year.
This emerges from a 2019 report by the country's INSEE statistics bureau.
A government study found that nearly 70 percent of young women living in the Paris region have been sexually harassed in public.
Chloe Madesta, 27, also belongs to the Parisian poster group and says her group is sometimes exposed to hostility from men if they saw women put up the posters.
"We were pelted with eggs, vegetables and all kinds of things," she says.
"A group of women in Montpellier were almost run over by a car."
The posters are also often torn off or painted over.
The women see this as confirmation of their work: "It means that our message gets through. Our fight is not over yet."
Icon: The mirror
cpa / rtr