Thousands of French protest violence against women

PARIS: Several thousand people marched in France on Saturday to condemn violence against women on the international day to combat the scrouge.

Many wearing purple, the colour of women and gender equality, demonstrators wove through the chilly streets of Paris and other cities, carrying signs reading: “One rape every six minutes in France” and “Protect your girls, educate your boys”.

“We don’t want to count the dead any more,” Maelle Lenoir, an official from the All of Us activist group, told reporters, urging the government to devote more money to eradicating violence against women.

France has recorded 121 women killed so far this year in femicides, the killing of a woman due to her gender, compared with 118 in 2022, according to government data. “Continued violence against women is not inevitable,” President Emmanuel Macron said in a video posted on social media earlier on Saturday.