The sexist and denigratory messages disseminated in the public sphere perpetuate societal stereotypes concerning the woman’s role and violence against women. The promotion of these messages imply enormous risks in a society that claims to be democratic, but discourages the women from reporting cases of abuse and from becoming involved in public life, consider representatives of civil society who launched a public statement condemning sexist and denigratory messages in a news conference at IPN.
Veronica Teleucă, coordinator of the National Coalition “Life without Domestic Violence”, said an example is a recent case of rape of two girls, one of whom, being a minor, was thrown out of the window and consequently died. Analyzing the online comments on this case, she ascertained that a lot of the comments weren’t in support of these girls and didn’t condemn the horror of this crime, but actually blamed the girls and somehow justified the rape.
“The friendly, joking attitude towards such things is educated gradually and does not appear suddenly, especially because we come from this society where beating women sometimes and educating children in a such a way were considered normal things. I was thinking that those who saw or read the comments definitely included women who were or are subject to violence. How do they feel? How motivated are these women to go and say that they are also abused and need assistance. Such an attitude is discouraging for these women. We know the real figures are much higher than the official ones. The public attitude encourages the abusers or those who harass and beat them. This way, few women will have the courage to report such cases,” stated Veronica Teleucă.
Gender Equality Platform president Olga Bîtcă said the number of sexist and denigratory messages has increased the past few weeks. This sexism discourages women who want to become involved in public and political life. A new phenomenon has been witnessed since 2016, when women who enter politics become the target of attacks. A conclusive example is the counterdemonstration of May 23 that generated disapproval of sexist messages among a majority of people. In this case, the women representing the parties that mounted the counterdemonstration should publicly condemn such sexist messages and should make common cause with the women affected by them.
“Promo-LEX” Association lawyer Dumitrul Sliusarenco said it is imperative that the authorities take attitude and at least condemn such cases and urge the people to have a tolerant behavior typical of a democratic society. The current legislation does not allow efficiently penalizing cases with prejudice- or hate-based motivation. A package of laws concerning such penalties was introduced into Parliament in 2016, but hasn’t been yet adopted.
Nina Lozinschi, secretary general of the Gender Equality Platform, said society should not tolerate such messages and the women should not be subject to sexist messages and violence. “According to the last analysis of violence against women, 52% of the female candidates or participants in the election campaign were subject to psychological and verbal abuse. This is a rather high percentage that generates questions,” she stated.
