French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday proposed a raft of measures to combat the "horrific and shameful" violence against women, as he pledged to make gender equality a major cause of his administration. "Our entire society is sick with sexism," Macron said in a speech in Paris to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
The 39-year-old leader began with a minute of silence to remember the 123 women killed in 2016 in France by their partner or ex-partner. "France must no longer be one of those countries where women are afraid," he said. Public awareness of sexual assault and harassment has been heightened following the charges levelled by women against Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. The scandal has touched off a worldwide wave of such allegations by women on the internet under the hashtag MeToo - in French called balancetonporc which has seen 500,000 tweets since mid-October.
Macron outlined three priorities over the five year term of his presidency from fostering gender equality to giving better assistance to victims of sexual abuse and enforcing harsh measures against aggressors. Nearly 225,000 women are said to have been victims of physical or sexual violence by their partner in France, but fewer than one in five have made a complaint to authorities.
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