Thousands protest violence against women across France
More than 400 French organisations have called for demonstrations across France on Saturday to protest violence against women. The mass mobilisation comes amid the widespread shock caused by the Pelicot mass rape trial, in which some 50 men are accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot at the behest of her husband while she was unconscious.
Thousands demonstrated in major French cities Saturday against violence targeting women, as campaigners push for the country to learn from a mass rape trial that has shocked the public.
Prosecutors will in the coming week ask the court in the southern city Avignon to sentence 51 men, one who drugged his wife over the course of a decade and dozens of others who accepted his invitations to abuse her at their home.
Out on the street, "the more of us there are, the more visible we are, this is everyone's business, not just women," said Peggy Plou, a local elected official from the Indre-et-Loire region in western France who had made the trip to Paris.
Thousands of people marched in the capital alone, mostly women but including some children and men.
And there were hundreds-strong demonstrations in other major cities including Marseille in the south, Lille in the northeast and Rennes in the northwest.
Many demonstrators carried signs with variations on the slogan "shame must switch sides", popularised by the plaintiff in the Avignon trial, Gisele Pelicot.
(AFP)
Read more on FRANCE 24 English
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