Sakellaropoulou for gender-based violence: The exemplary punishment of the guilty is rare

The President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, expressed the wish that “young girls will never tolerate abusive behaviors”, while stressing that “when women stop tolerating them somewhere, it will be difficult for men to practice them”, inaugurating the series this morning. podcast of the municipal radio Athens 9.84, about gender-based violence.

The President of the Republic pointed out, among other things, that “gender-based violence is a global phenomenon, a phenomenon of unique historical endurance, with particularly painful implications” and “affects the integrity, the dignity of women, condemns them to social marginalization, to psychological dissolution, if do not kill them in the end. “But a life under physical and psychological violence is a living death.” Ms. Sakellaropoulou also stressed that “the unpleasant thing is that these phenomena, as we have experienced, at least in the past, are rarely reported and even more rarely punished.” He said that due to the pandemic and the special circumstances that prevailed “there was a great outbreak of this phenomenon”. As the President of the Republic said, this phenomenon “has to do with the power grids, with the wrong models of male power that exist in society, a completely wrong perception of masculinity. This is a purely abuse of power. “Women are often considered submissive and subordinate to large sections of the population and this leads to these unpleasant phenomena that we all know.”

Ms. Sakellaropoulou underlined that “it is a myth that gender-based violence concerns the weak, low social strata or marginalized groups” as “it is a myth that a woman’s weakness brings the perpetrator into this behavior”. “No, the perpetrator’s choice is this behavior and his own pure fault,” said the President of the Republic, noting that “whoever initiates such behavior will rarely stop and that is why women who have this fragile survival and experience it phenomena I believe should be encouraged to speak. To break their silence “.

Referring to the testimony of Sofia Bekatorou “she said that” her strength, her dignity, the inner struggle she had experienced all these years to manage this whole thing and her courageous revelation that I would say swept every attempt at cover-up – was “sweeping” and “contributing to the general awareness of society against such behaviors”, recalling that he immediately met with her to send the message to women “speak, break the silence”.

The President of the Republic also spoke about the murder of women, saying that “it is due to very outdated social perceptions and gender stereotypes”. “It really is a crime in which all the moral standards of the perpetrators are enshrined, the hierarchy of the two sexes. They reflect this incredible property mentality that is often felt by the male members of the family, but this property mentality in some way in the eyes of the perpetrators, legitimizes them in the exercise of violence. Women are considered submissive and can be receptive to such behaviors. I know that there is an intense dialogue about the term feminicide both in legal science and in Greece. “The term exists and what it wants to give, I believe, our age needs to give it,” he said.

Ms. Sakellaropoulou also referred to the “next day of the complaint”, saying that there is a difficulty and that is where the bet is. Even when women find the courage to complain, the complaint to the authorities is often set aside and ignored. But if you go to court, you see the discrediting, the attempt to undermine the victim and the attempt to present the incidents in another way. When trials take place we rarely have the exemplary punishment of the guilty. That fact must be taken into account. “