Will the Duhamel affair have broken the silence around incest?
Since Saturday, January 16, thousands of alleged victims of incest testify on Twitter under the hashtag "#metooinceste", three years after the phenomenon #metoo, which, in the wake of the Weinstein affair, has freed the floor around the harassment sexual.
“I was six years old and everything flew into an attic”
“5 years old.
My uncle".
"All my childhood stolen by a man, my father"
.
In their tweets, the victims speak of the long silence that has often surrounded the events, and their sometimes long-term consequences:
“I am 57 years old and I am still a victim of this past.
“I never built anything.
My social, professional or sentimental life is a succession of failures and isolation, ”
writes a woman.
“30 years later, I'm still struggling to rebuild myself
,
”
wrote another Internet user.
The hashtag #metooinceste sparked tens of thousands of mentions on Twitter, after the shockwave caused by the January 7 release of Camille Kouchner's book,
La familia grande
.
The political scientist Olivier Duhamel is accused of incest on his stepson, then aged 14.
Since then, a judicial investigation for
“rape and sexual assault by person having authority over a minor of 15 years”
has been opened and the constitutional expert has resigned from all his functions.
The case rebounded in the political and intellectual world where Olivier Duhamel was evolving because many officials are accused of having been informed of the facts.
Among them, the former minister Elisabeth Guigou, who renounced the commission on incest of which she was the head, and the director of Sciences Po Frédéric Mion, also called for resignation by many students.
To read also: Camille Kouchner: “My mother, she understood very well.
She minimized, it's even worse "
The testimonies put words on more banal situations than one thinks, since incest would affect one person in ten in France.
“These tweets reflect what professionals have been telling us for years: the perpetrators of incest are not monsters lurking in a cave, but a father, a brother, an uncle ... Gentlemen, everyone , from all social backgrounds,
”says Madeline Da Silva, of the feminist collective NousToutes, which launched the first hashtags on Saturday noon.
"My mother dissuaded me from filing a complaint,"
we read on Twitter.
“My friends didn't believe me”
.
Often, victims report difficulty being heard during their childhood.
“The movement also shows that the victims are ready to speak.
But that the adults in the family react little, or badly,
”observes Madeline Da Silva, who calls for greater training of professionals to deal with incest.
"This kind of case is extremely helpful for the victims"
The Secretary of State for Children and Families, Adrien Taquet, greeted the victims on Twitter for their "courage":
"This release of speech is essential, and must be accompanied by strong measures to better protect the victims , better support them, better repress the aggressors, ”
he wrote.
Adrien Taquet had launched a month ago an "independent commission on incest and sexual violence suffered during childhood" but Elisabeth Guigou to give up the chair.
Since then, the commission has been suspended pending the appointment of a new presidency, which will take place "in a few weeks", according to Adrien Taquet.
But time is running out, if we are to believe the thousands of testimonials that are flocking to the social network.
“
This kind of case (like the Duhamel case) is extremely helpful for the victims.
They allow themselves to express themselves in the wake of the personalities who speak out on complex subjects ”
, Madeline Da Silva analyzes.
“The word is there, but it needs to be carried and taken on collectively to be heard.
"
The revelations of Camille Kouchner come almost a year after the publication of Vanessa Springora's book,
Consent
, where the editor recounts the relationship under the influence with the writer Gabriel Matzneff, 36 years her senior, when she was 14 years.
A few months earlier, actress Adèle Haenel had denounced the touching of director Christophe Ruggia, with whom she had worked very young.
“So much pain behind every
#MetooIncest
.
But so much strength in each of you.
You are not alone.
We believe you.
The walls of silence are falling.
And the executioners are trembling, “
responded Alexandre Kouchner, the half-brother of the author of La familia grande.
The testimonies of victims are accompanied by numerous messages of support, coupled with the hashtag "#onvouscroit". Among them, many elected officials and personalities from various political stripes, from the rebellious France MEP Manon Aubry to LREM MP Aurore Bergé via Raphaël Glucksmann (Place Publique).
"We must follow
#metooinceste
, support these victims, admire their courage, thank Camille Kouchner for the historic path she has opened, and demand the opening of a debate on imprescribility and on the age of consent"
, writes the former patroness of Medef Laurence Parisot.
"The courage of the testimonies which are expressed on
#metooinceste
requires answers",
notes Michael Delafosse, the ecological mayor of Montpellier.
