Photograph Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Day by day Beast/Getty
ATHENS—Anna, a 30-year-old girl dwelling in Greece, by no means may have predicted what would occur to her after she determined to spend New Yr’s Day along with her sister at their dwelling within the Galatsi neighborhood of Athens, as an alternative of visiting her ex-boyfriend who had invited her over to his place. Pushed by rage that afternoon, the 34-year-old man allegedly busted into her home wielding a knife, grabbed her by her hair, and whisked her off some three miles away to his house, the place she endured two hours of brutal beatings at his palms.
In a perverse flip of occasions, her ex-boyfriend determined to showcase his brutality for all to see by livestreaming the assault on his Fb web page. Within the gut-wrenching video, the person may be seen sitting on a sofa with Anna subsequent to him, shouting, “I'm a person. I'm a person, not a girl,” and pummeling his ex-girlfriend. Earlier than cops broke down the door to arrest the person and rescue Anna, the person reportedly threatened to kill her and to explode all the constructing with a gasoline cylinder.
Anna, a Bulgarian nationwide who has been dwelling in Greece for the previous three years, had been in a four-month relationship with the person. She informed investigators the subsequent day that this wasn’t the primary time her ex, who's initially from Egypt, had been violent along with her. “He had overwhelmed me many occasions earlier than, however I didn’t need to go to the cops,” she informed police. Amongst different prices, the accused, who can't be named in Greece earlier than his trial takes place, stands accused of tried murder, kidnapping, and inflicting harmful bodily hurt.
“This can be a good instance of the patriarchy, that ‘I'm a person and I've the suitable to do what I do,’... I'm certain that there are a number of Greeks who agree with him,” Kiki Petroulaki, a psychologist and president of the European Anti-Violence Community, informed The Day by day Beast. “The way in which we elevate our girls and boys makes them two-speed residents. We now have positioned a lot guilt and accountability on ladies and now we have given so many inverted rights to males, that even when they don't agree, they someway comply to be powerful males.”
When Greek police forces arrived on the man’s house and began negotiating with him, they requested about Anna’s situation. “She is okay for now,” he reportedly replied. “If you see me holding her severed head in my palms, then you'll perceive that I'm a person.”
The assault instantly trended on Twitter in Greece, with customers describing the horrible video as “a punch within the abdomen,” whereas others questioned what number of extra ladies will die by the hands of their companions this 12 months. The hashtag #femicide—a time period that has dominated Greek media over the previous 12 months—adopted each put up.
Seventeen ladies in Greece had been killed by their present or former husbands, boyfriends, or companions in 2021, virtually twice as many because the 12 months prior. In keeping with official information from Greece’s Basic Secretariat for Demography and Household Coverage and Gender Equality, the annual variety of home violence accusations within the nation has step by step tripled up to now decade.
“This doesn’t essentially imply that now we have extra instances of home violence, however that girls discuss greater than earlier than and search assist. Up till 2011, there wasn’t even a helpline for girls to name,” explains Petroulaki. “The identical goes for complaints to the police. Because the variety of complaints will increase, which means the police and the judiciary are doing a greater job.”
In Might of final 12 months, Greek society was shocked by the brutal homicide of British-born Caroline Crouch, a 20-year-old who was discovered strangled to loss of life in her dwelling subsequent to her 11-month-old daughter. Her husband, Babis Anagnostopoulos, was discovered tied up on the scene, and had claimed that a group of thieves entered their home, tortured his household, and murdered his spouse. It was solely a month later that Anagnostopoulos allegedly copped to having dedicated the homicide himself, with police claiming he had staged a faux housebreaking in a revelation that garnered headlines worldwide.
Following the information, union police officer Stavros Balaskas was the topic of nationwide fury after feedback he made on Greek tv concerning the case. “He's silly. If [at] the time he killed his spouse, he known as the police and stated it was an unlucky occasion… that ‘he misplaced it and went loopy,’ he wouldn't go to jail for greater than 4 years.”
However the unlucky actuality is that what Balaskas stated wasn’t removed from the reality. The dearth of correct authorized procedures typically leaves survivors of home violence uncovered to future assaults by their companions.
In keeping with Petroulaki: “There's a authorized framework which was supplemented by the Istanbul Conference, however in actuality we're lagging behind in implementation. There are households the place home violence has been reported 2-3 or extra occasions, however the courts are held after 4-5 years, the sentences are quick… as a result of virtually all offenses are thought-about misdemeanors.” She added: “And on the finish, what's a femicide? It’s the tip of the highway of home violence.”
One instance is the case of Konstantina Tsapa from the central Greek village of Makrinitsa, whose husband was accused of stabbing her to loss of life in April of final 12 months. The 28-year-old girl was married to him for 4 years, however separated from him and moved out with their youngster after repeated bouts of violence. The household had reported the home abuse however earlier than the case may very well be correctly investigated, the 31-year-old man allegedly went to Konstantina’s home and killed her and her brother. He has since been charged with two counts of homicide.
In the meantime, specialists say the COVID-19 pandemic has solely worsened the plague of home violence in Greece. “Definitely, the pandemic itself didn't make males abusive,” stated Petroulaki, explaining that the extra time an abusive man spends along with his victims, the upper the possibilities are that violent outbursts will happen.
Regardless of the hike in home violence instances because the begin of the pandemic, Petroulaki supplied some hopeful insights into the longer term. “What we're noticing [now] is that in some instances, justice has begun to maneuver just a little sooner and to impose some penalties and pre-trial detention. That is in the suitable course, however now we have the sensation that it occurs in instances that get publicity. Whereas there are tons of extra on the market.”
Whether or not justice can be served in Anna’s case is but to be seen. Her ex-boyfriend is presently sitting in jail, pending trial.
“I don’t know what's going to occur with him, however I'm very afraid for my life,” the 30-year-old informed reporters on her manner out of a court docket look on Tuesday. “I'm certain that if he's launched, he'll come again to search out me and kill me.”