French women and domestic violence

Thursday, Aug 14, 2003

Feminism champion falls victim to domestic violence

PARIS AUG. 13. The death of actress Marie Trintignant after a heated row
with her rock star lover has unleashed an outcry over domestic violence in
France — where one in 10 women is beaten at home.

As an autopsy revealed that Trintignant, a classic beauty who had graced
French movies since childhood, died from blows to the face, a study
resurfaced showing that her death is not that extraordinary.

Every five days a woman is beaten to death by her partner, and
wife-battering in France is just as prevalent among the well-heeled as among
the underprivileged, according to the Government-commissioned study which
was published originally in June 2002.

"Trintignant's death has shaken public opinion and smashed stereotypes about
domestic violence.

"Even independent, assertive women can be victims," said Marie-Dominique de
Suremain, head of the National Federation for Women's Solidarity.

"There are 1.5 million women in France who are abused — physically, sexually
or psychologically — by husbands or partners. That implies there are 1.5
million men out there behind this violence, and you wouldn't know to look at
them." The federation, which groups 54 associations, struggles to cope with
some 15,000 calls each year from battered women.

Recently, some 200 supporters, wearing white ribbons as a sign of
non-violence, converged on a Paris square to lay a wreath of sunflowers in
memory of victims of fatal beatings. "Too many women are murdered. We're fed
up with macho men," read a slogan, pinned up alongside the names of some
victims.

According to the European Lobby for Women, France is sandwiched between the
Netherlands, where 13 per cent of women report violence at home, and
Switzerland, where six per cent do.

In Spain, where violence against women is a big issue, 45 women have died so
far this year at the hands of their partners. Saddled with the same Latin
macho attitudes, French women have been downtrodden for years— getting the
vote only in 1944.

They still generally earn less than men who do the same work and are
under-represented in politics.

Sociologists say some men feel threatened by living with successful
career-women who earn big bucks, making them financially independent, and
enjoy busy social lives.

"Some men have this archaic view that it is normal for women to be
disadvantaged. If they see their wives becoming ambitious and independent,
they feel inadequate, they resist and sometimes they refuse to accept it,"
said de Suremain.

"We hear terrible things. A lot of women are hit in the face or eye. Some
have their backs broken and are left handicapped for life. Some are even
dangled out of windows by their feet. The more this comes out into the open,
the better."

Meanwhile, Trintignant, daughter of movie star Jean-Louis Trintignant, was
buried last week after an emotional funeral attended by actress Catherine
Deneuve, the former Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin, and thr British actress
and singer, Jane Birkin, among others.

Her boyfriend Bertrand Cantat, lead singer of the popular French group Noir
Desir, is in custody in Lithuania pending an inquiry into manslaughter after
an incident in the couple's Vilnius hotel room on July 27 left Trintignant
in a fatal coma.

Ironically, the poetry-loving Cantat has always been seen as a left-wing
pacifist.

The 39-year-old singer opposed the war in Iraq and has espoused a series of
politically correct causes.

And while she often played fragile characters, 41-year-old mother-of-four
Trintignant was a standard-bearer for feminism.

At her funeral, Culture Minister, Jean-Jacques Aillagon, recalled "the
solitary struggle she led for all people...and particularly for women".

Reuters
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