The year 2021 had been a deadly year for women in Greece as 17 women were murdered by husbands and partners, despite repeated appeals from activists and politicians to introduce new law to protect women from horrific domestic abuse and murder.

The sheer brutality of the killings – such as a woman was suffocated, as police found her baby lying beside her and another was stabbed as many as 23 times – often hit headlines of the international press, but there’s no sign of abetting such heinous crimes. The Greek police recorded cases of domestic violence against 5,705 women between January and September 2021, an increase of 60% from the same period in 2020. Among them 16 were murdered.

According to activists, this is not even the tip of iceberg—95 per cent of rapes and a majority of cases of domestic violence is not reported by women as they consider the crimes as family secrets to be revealed to public. Even then there’s been a surge of cases of alleged sexual abuse, including celebrities, such as actors and art figures, with slow prosecution history in a deeply patriarchal society.

Some experts have pointed to the incidents as an adverse effect of Covid restrictions and lockdowns. The United Nations termed rising domestic abuse across nations as a “shadow pandemic” and Pope Francis denounced them as “almost satanic.”

Activists and politicians, however, see domestic abuse as a long-term disease that needs to be cured with the strongest medicine. The major opposition party Syriza has called for a stringent law recognising femicide as a heinous crime. Stronger prosecution by the legal system is also their demand. Leftist leader and former prime minister Alexis Tsipras said, “Disgust and fury is not enough, it’s time for action.”

There’s also been calls to train the police force better to handle domestic abuse cases and consider them as a priority. Also, the silent majority of domestic abuse victims must be encouraged to come forward and speak out. For this, the government should set up counseling centers and other useful measures to support the abused women.

READ MORE: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/23/world/greece-domestic-violence-abuse.html

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/dec/21/greece-femicide-crime-two-more-women-killed