Paris City Hall will be dressed in purple on April 23 for Relay Night. This charity race organized since 2016 by the Women's Foundation will raise funds to fight against violence against women.
Since the 2023 edition, the race has taken place near the Town Hall. “Before it was at the Grand Palais, but it had become too small for us,” jokes Anne-Cécile Mailfert, president of the Women’s Foundation. For this year 2024, as part of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, “it was important for the town hall to combine sport and societal commitment,” she specifies.
The new edition expects at least 3,500 runners. They will take turns from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. every eight minutes on a 440 m track whose route crosses two interior courtyards of the building. “Sport is only a pretext to bring people together, and the race is open to everyone, athletes or not,” believes the president of the Women’s Foundation.
During the evening, concerts, on-stage entertainment, a bar and food trucks will be available to non-running spectators. “The idea was to do something festive,” continues Anne-Cécile Mailfert.
90,000 euros already raised
To participate in this relay, you must form a team of five to ten runners, men or women over 18 years old. But above all, each group must collect 1,000 euros before April 21 at midnight. It is possible to maximize winnings until the start time of the race.
Since it existed, the Nuit des Relais has raised 946,000 euros. “To which we must add the 90,000 euros already collected by this year’s participants,” specifies Anne-Cécile Mailfert. The funds are redistributed to associations fighting on the ground such as the Feminist Collective Against Rape, the En avant tous association and even accommodation centers.
The national observatory on violence against women estimates that 217,000 women aged 18 to 74 are victims of rape, sexual assault or both. The number of complaints may have increased, but 94% of them remain closed without action. “We also finance support for victims when they file a complaint and also when they end up in court,” adds Anne-Cécile Mailfert.
A race under the sign of “feminist” Games
According to Hélène Bidard, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of issues relating to gender equality, this Relay night is the “preview” of the resolutely feminist Olympic and Paralympic Games. “For the first time in their history, there will be as many women athletes as there are athletes. If we add to this the #MeToo movement which continues to develop and the constitutionalization of abortion, we can say that there is an important alignment of the planets in 2024,” believes the elected official.
A “feminist plan” for the Olympic and Paralympic Games concocted by the City of Paris will soon be revealed. “There will be a lot of action to fight against sexist and sexual violence, set up
safe
zones
for victims or even allow athletes to be put forward,” sketches Hélène Bidard. A “women's rights passport”, listing women's rights in France and translated into several languages, will also be distributed during the Games.