Recent cases have shown the dysfunctions in the protection of women from violent men. The Women’s Foundation warns about the lack of means available to protect women against firearms, which are used in 30 to 40% of feminicides.
Chahinez Daoud died at the age of 31, murdered by her husband, who shot her before sacrificing her. Terry Dupin, madman arrested in Dordogne still had weapons despite his convictions for domestic violence. Two news items a few weeks apart which bring to light a request from many feminist associations: when will the effective confiscation of weapons from violent spouses? Contacted by aufeminin, Anne-Cécile Mailfert, president of the Women’s Foundation makes this bitter observation: “Today in France, attacks against people are not as repressed as attacks on property”. Yet she refuses to get used to the fact that we fail to protect women.
A question of resources, but also of political priority
In the case of Terry Dupin, after conviction, his authorization to carry weapons had not been withdrawn. The concern, however, is not only about the monitoring of the carrying of weapons: it is on the monitoring of violence in general that the current system is fishing. “We do not protect them, we do not listen to them, we do not take them into consideration enough these women”, insists Anne-Cécile Mailfert. In recent examples, we also remember the tragedy caused by this man in the Drôme, who murdered his ex-wife and three gendarmes before turning the gun on him. His ex-wife had however alerted to the dangerousness of the man. How to explain it? “It is unfortunately, on the one hand, a problem of human resources, because complaints for violence increased by 20% in 2021 but not the number of staff to follow these complaints. On the other hand, given that the members of the police cannot do everything, they have to arbitrate according to the political priority of the moment. However, the political priority of the Minister of the Interior is not protection against gender-based violence. He is on other subjects: drugs, urban rodeos… He’s not confiscating guns from abusive spouses. “