a societal scourge that spans the centuries

According to figures published in November 2024the letter from the National Observatory of Violence Against Women lists 484,000 victims of violence committed by their partner or ex-partner, in France in 2023. The survey, carried out among people aged 18 and over in the Hexagon, in Guadeloupe, Martinique and Reunion, details the types of violence suffered: 109,000 people victims of physical violence, 339,000 victims of verbal or psychological violence and finally, 123,000 victims of sexual violence.

The first figures, published ten years ago, by the Ministry of the Interior identified a total of 201,000 victims of physical and/or sexual violence, the data not taking into account verbal and psychological violence at that period.

In a context of freedom of speech and attempts to improve the reception conditions for victims by the police services, the number of victims recorded has more than doubled since 2013. Nevertheless, according to the Experienced and Felt Safety Survey (VRS)only 14% of victims filed a complaint with the security services for the acts they suffered in 2022. In France, although the census of victims is very recent, the violence as such has for too long been accepted as ” normal.”

Asymmetry between women and men

Revealed thanks to archaeological excavations, we know that violence against women has existed throughout time, since the Neolithic era. Thousands of years later, in 1804, the Civil Code was created and adopted under Napoleon Bonaparte. The “Civil Code of the French” was initially that of men who were property owners, married and fathers of families. Also called the “Napoleon Code”, the text ratifies the submission of the woman to her husband. Just like the mad, the wife is described as “incapable” and is deprived of all her civil rights from the moment she is married. Women are also excluded from active citizenship, allowing them to be killed for political crimes.

In the original article 213 of the “Napoleon Code”, relations between spouses are defined as follows: “ The husband owes protection to his wife, the wife owes obedience to her husband. » This shows that one is “ in an asymmetrical relationship where power is exercised by men and women suffer from it », explains Christelle Taraud, historian and specialist in gender issues. It was not until 1970 that this article was modified and that “ the spouses together ensure the moral and material direction of the family, provide for the education of the children and prepare their future “. In 1810, the Penal Code reinforced the supremacy of the husband. For example, the murder committed by the husband on his wife in the marital home is excusable.

Even if justice initiates a reflection on its qualification, we really had to wait until the end of the 19th century to speak of intolerance of violence within the couple. In the 19th century, the concept of “domestic violence” did not exist. Other terms were used like “dissension” or “domestic tyranny” or even broader terms like “abuse of strength against weakness”. It is the long work of magistrates which made it possible to transform what existed as a social phenomenon into a legal phenomenon, such as homicides, murders, assassinations, poisonings within the couple, explained Victoria Vanneau, researcher at the CNRS and author, in 2016. of Household peace. History of domestic violence, 19th-21st centuries (Anamosa editions) to Mediapart on the occasion of the release of his work. It was not until the 1970s that this expression appeared.

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The violence suffered by these women became a real social issue in the 19th century. Before that, we can go back an intellectual hierarchy which would go from Christine de Pizan, to Madeleine de Scudéry via Olympe de Gouges. “ It is a fairly long genealogy of women who worked for a society of equality between men and women. But there was no movement, explains Christelle Taraud. Feminism advances women’s rights in a very concrete way by drawing on the three great revolutions of the 19th century, namely the Three Glorious Years, the revolution of 1848 and then the Paris Commune. »

Marital rape and feminicide

If since 1945, the United Nations (UN) affirmed equality between women and men, in France, women have remained under the authority of men for a long time and the patriarchal model has long governed the behavior of women. each other. It was only from the 1970s, after May-68 and the progression of feminist movements, that the first legislative advances took place, according to sociologist Maryse Jaspard in her work Violence against women (La Découverte editions). Nowadays, society no longer tolerates violence within couples and systematically condemns it. This awakening of awareness is linked to the gradual emergence of gender equality and the tightening of the law.

For a very long time, marital rape did not exist. It is assumed that the husband and wife must have sexual intercourse. A case in 1839 changed the situation: a woman from the bourgeoisie complained of her husband’s pressing demands for “unnatural acts”. We had to wait until September 5, 1990, for the criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation recognizes for the first time the crime of rape between spouses within the framework of marriage. Its decision has “no other purpose than to protect the freedom of each person” and explicitly states that rape “does not exclude from its provisions acts of sexual penetration between persons united by the bonds of marriage”.

In 1993, the Court of Cassation was even clearer on marital consent: “The presumption of consent of the spouses to sexual acts performed in the privacy of married life is only valid until proven otherwise. »And two years later, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) definitively endorsed the notion of rape between spouses.

Unlike, femicide has no legal status in France. There were discussions to include it in the Penal Code. “ We were told that we didn’t need it because we already had the arsenal sufficient to punish, indicates historian Christelle Taraud. Perhaps our law would make it possible to convict efficiently if the entire judicial system was trained to understand the nature of the crime of femicide. I don’t think that’s the case today, even if it’s moving forward. In particular thanks to Gwenola Joly-Coz, president of the presidents of the courts of appeal who has significantly advanced jurisprudence. »

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For comparison, in nearly twenty countries on the American continent, including Mexico, femicide is included in the Penal Code. This is also the case in Belgium, the first country in Europe to adopt a law to this effect in July 2023. Spain, which has not legislated, is nevertheless cited as an example where the rate of feminicides is half as much higher than that of France. However, specifies Christelle Taraud, it is not because it is included in the law that it is applied all the same, nor that “ mentalities, practices and imaginations will change spontaneously. Passing a law is good, but it can only be applicable if, upstream and downstream, we do educational work that allows us to change mentalities in practice. » .

Despite the awakening of consciousness over the centuries and the emergence of feminist movements like #MeToo since 2017, the fight against violence against women has been an ongoing struggle. This is what the recent Mazan affair reminds us, which deeply shocked French society. and elsewhere in the world.

Since September 2, the trial of the “Mazan rapes”is held before the Vaucluse Criminal Court, in Avignon. In public, “ so that shame changes sides », in the words of the victim, Gisèle Pelicot.

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