aliaksandr_valodzin: “If you want to feel safe — don’t leave the house.”
On 19.03.2019 Garcia-Cruciani cold-bloodedly shots mother of his children and former girlfriend, Julie Douib. He then walked into a police station and surrendered. France was shaken by the fact that the potential for this murder had been known to neighbors, the police, and the prosecutor's office. Julie had contacted the police ten times and filed five complaints with the prosecutor’s office against her former partner, but her warnings were ignored — right up until the tragedy unfolded in her own home. Violence, made possible by the silence of the majority, exploded into public outrage across FR.
As a result of the public outcry, the feminist collective Insomnia, which anonymously posted protest posters across France, was joined by writer and activist Marguerite Stern. The movement now had a face — and weight. Since 2016, posters made of black letters collaged onto A4 paper began appearing whenever there was a high-profile act of violence or discrimination against women.
The movement, known as Plakaciary, was brought to PL by a French woman hiding behind the pseudonym “Janka.” Belarusians first heard about it when posters began appearing in the city following the rape and murder of 25-year-old Yelizaveta Herzen in the center of Warsaw. Like Julie Douib, Liza fell victim to indifference and silence: as the assault occurred, passersby saw it but pretended nothing was happening — they simply walked on.
In recent years, activists from European feminist movements have increasingly arrived in PL. The country now represents the last barricade on the eastern front in the fight for women's rights. The last — because further east, for instance in Belarus, opportunities to influence civil society are nearly nonexistent. There, totalitarian regimes are being established and waging a permanent war against dissent. Voices from the western side of the border go unheard. The last attempt to pass a law against domestic violence in BY failed.
