"You have to keep quiet at the risk of being marginalized": students denounce the culture of rape in IEPs

For days, a wave has been rising on social networks.

And has just fallen on an institution, already in the heart of the turmoil: Sciences Po. Since Monday, hundreds of students have decided to break the silence around sexual violence in the Institutes of Political Studies (IEP) behind a hashtag, #sciencesporcs.

Faced with the scale of the testimonies, this Wednesday, Elisabeth Moreno, the Minister responsible for Equality between women and men, and Frédérique Vidal, Minister of Higher Education, bring together the directors of IEP.

Zoé * left the Institute of Political Studies of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Yvelines) a year ago, without a diploma.

But whatever the piece of paper and the prestigious line on the CV, the young woman is now released.

"Sciences Po has made me very mentally fragile, and leaving this institution was a relief," she told Le Parisien.

During the two years of her schooling, she claims to have suffered several assaults, including two rapes, which she will keep secret.

"I did not speak to the administration because I felt incapable, that I felt guilty about

ruining his life

".

One night, during an integration party, her boyfriend at the time takes advantage of his sleep to sexually assault him.

"I believed for a long time that I was lucky and that these rapes had left me no traumas, but I am now unable to sleep with other people in the same room," she says. today.

"For several weeks, I was afraid to leave my apartment"

According to the young woman, the administration becomes aware of an altercation that occurred with a student, after a conference given in the enclosure of the IEP in October 2019. “He could not bear that I qualify his comments as sexist.

When I decided to end the conversation, he followed me up the stairs grabbed and pulled very hard to the point of leaving marks on me and almost knocking me down, ”Zoe recalls.

With her cell phone, she then records their discussion and publishes a testimony of her assault on social networks.

It is called by the management, which initially seems very attentive.

Before asking him to delete his testimony, she says.

After several interviews, the administration told him that it would not take any disciplinary decision.

Zoe would then be encouraged to file a handrail, and him to file a defamation complaint.

“For several weeks, I was afraid to leave my apartment because he lived in the same student residence.

I have never had any chance to obtain justice because the administration has never considered sanctioning it or directing me on legal avenues that could lead to sanctions, she regrets.

The

no wave policy

of the IEP directors is additional violence that victims do not need.

This cowardice baffles me.

Administrations have so many depressions on their conscience.

Personally, I can no longer set foot in Saint-Germain without feeling bad ”.

Contacted, the management of the establishment confirms having been confronted with several cases of violence quickly after its opening in 2014, especially during school evenings or the Crit ', the sports competition between the IEPs.

“I unfortunately recognize some of my students in these portraits,” says Céline Braconnier, director.

As soon as she arrived, she set up a partnership with Women Safe, an association for the care of victims of violence.

"I am not saying that we could not miss a case, we should lack humility.

But each time we learned of the violence suffered, we received the students, discussed, and systematically appealed to this association, ”recalls Céline Braconnier.

However, the criticisms against the administrations remain strong among the students who have tried to speak.

“You cannot prevent students from not feeling heard.

[…] Taking charge does not mean guaranteeing an outcome, it is guaranteeing listening, support by professionals who are able to deal with this ”, underlines the director.

A support release

Like Zoe, Hélène had complete confidence in the institution.

A year ago, after a lot of work, she joined the IEP of her dreams, whose name she preferred not to mention.

“School gave me the perfect image.

At the start of integration, this image is accentuated, everything is done to assimilate: many evenings, integration days, city tours ... We make friends very quickly, that is. is a good atmosphere and you finally get to know almost everyone, ”says the young girl, now in second year.

During one of these famous evenings, Hélène is drugged with GHB, the so-called rapist drug.

“I immediately understood what was happening to me, because I had not drunk alcohol and found myself in a disastrous state.

Nothing more serious has happened to me, I am very happy and I even come to consider myself lucky that it only happened to

me

”, she says.

The information spreads within the school, among the students of Sciences Po, and Hélène notes with pain that her version of the facts is in doubt.

She decides to be silent, and does not turn to the administration.

“I felt trapped by the law of silence: you have to keep quiet at the risk of being marginalized.

Everyone protects themselves and something has become established over the years, victims must be silent so as not to ruin the future careers of their attackers, or risk a libel lawsuit.

The victims do not necessarily have the money to carry out a trial, the attackers do, ”she blurted out.

Despite difficulties in continuing her education, Hélène clings.

"I could not leave, in my family doing a higher education is absolutely exceptional and I could not see myself spoiling that, so I continued, but I was very bad".

Morning essentials newsletter

A tour of the news to start the day

Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters

Testimonies in line with those received by the hundreds by Anna Toumazoff, feminist activist.

She relentlessly relays these speeches, "to bring about a general movement in the IEP", she explains to the Parisian.

Sciences Po schools cover rapists, silence victims, and teach everyone else the law of silence.

Let us not be surprised at the state of our political class in view of what we teach them.

All the testimonials here https://t.co/NtE5ter0fi#SCIENCESPORCS pic.twitter.com/411Fj4Hygs

- Anna Toumazoff (@AnnaToumazoff) February 8, 2021

This Wednesday, the management of seven French IEPs assured by means of a press release "their resolute support for the victims", and say "fully measure the seriousness of the acts denounced and are more than ever listening and determined to act against the aggressors" .

To date, the only preliminary investigation for rape has been investigated in Toulouse after the filing of a complaint on February 6.

* First names have been changed