French women go on-line to denounce police handling of sexual assault cases
One rape victim was asked by Paris police what she wore that day, and why she did not struggle more. Another woman was forced to fondle herself to demonstrate a sexual assault to a sceptical police officer.
They are among thousands of French women who have denounced in a new online campaign the shocking response of police officers victim-blaming them or mishandling their complaints as they reported sexual abuse.
The hashtag #Doublepeine (#Doublesentencing) was launched last month by Anna Toumazoff after she learned that a 19-year-old woman who filed a rape complaint in the southern city of Montpellier was asked by police in graphic terms whether she experienced pleasure during the assault.
The hashtag quickly went viral, with women describing similar experiences in Montp el lie rand other police stations across france. french women' s rights group no us tout es counted at least 30,000 accounts of mistreatment in tweets and other messages sent on social media an do na specific website.
Despite recent training programmesfor french police and growing awareness around violence against women, activists say authorities must do more to face up to the gravity of sex crimes, and to eradicate discrimination against victims.
Addressing the national issue last week, interior minister gerald Darmanin said" there are questions that cannot be asked to women when they come to file a complaint." "It's not up to the police officer to say whether there was domestic violence or not, that's up to the judge to do it," he added.
He also announced an internal investigation at the Montpellier police station.
The prefect of the region of Montpellier had previously condemned in a statement what he called "defamatory comments" against officers. He denounced "false information" and" lies" aiming at discrediting police action.
Toumazoff denied launching an anti-police campaign, saying the hashtag aims at urging the government to take action. "By letting incompetent and dangerous officers working in police stations, (authorities) expose the whole profession to shame," she told the Associated Press.
The Montpellier regional branch of powerful police union Alliance argued that officers are just doing their jobs. "While police officers understand the victims' distress, the establishment of the truth requires us to ask embarrassing questions," it said.
A 37-year-old Parisian woman told the AP about her experience at a police station after she was assaulted this year by a man living near her home, who had previously harassed her in the street.
The woman described arriving scared and crying at the police station, where officers welcomed her "very kindly". But then, she said, the officer in charge of filing the complaint did not write down her descriptionof the assault, so she refused to sign the document.
"I had to tell it all again," she said. the officer asked if she was certain that the abuser wanted to touch her breast. "I had to make the gesture so that he sees that it was not another part of the body," she said. "Making me repeat and mime the gesture in front of a wall, that's humiliating.”