Civil society representatives issued a public statement condemning sexist and denigratory messages “heard more and more often” these days, as being a “serious and unacceptable violation of human rights”. The statement, signed by the advocacy associations the Gender Equality Platform and the National Coalition against Domestic Violence, says such messages undermine human dignity, incite to discrimination, encourage violence and hate, and reinforce existing social stereotypes.
During a press conference, Coalition coordinator Veronica Teleucă stated that public rhetoric has become increasingly hate-instigating lately. This tendency, which creates an atmosphere of condoning violence against women, is all the more dangerous in patriarchal societies like Moldova’s. For example, illustrates Veronica Teleucă, top-rated entertainment shows can easily romanticize a story of an underage woman who was sexually abused, or can use domestic violence as comedy tropes. And what’s worse, says Teleucă, such messages propagate into society.
Nina Lozinschi, secretary of the Gender Equality Platform, said one aspect of sexist messages is that women are discouraged from participating in politics. For example, the latest mapping of violence against women showed that a staggering 52% of female candidates standing in elections were subjected to psychological or verbal violence.
Dumitrul Sliusarenco, jurist with the human rights organization Promo-LEX, noted that every day on average two instances of hate speech are reported, which is very much for such a small country like Moldova. Most often, it’s politicians or their supporters displaying intolerance.
Olga Bîtcă, president of the Gender Equality Platform, said a new phenomenon emerged in 2016 wherein sexist speech has been directed against women in politics, with multiple tricks and stereotypes used to reduce the number of votes for women candidates. “We absolutely condemn and are even disgusted by both certain recurrent messages and the ones that were first heard during the May 23 counter-protest”, said Bîtcă, adding that legal sanctions should be introduced to punish sexism in politics.
In the public statement issued, the associations express solidarity with the persons affected by sexist and discriminatory messages and urge the media to refrain from spreading such messages.
