On the eve of 25 November, the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and amidst an unprecedented escalation of domestic violence caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the isolation measures imposed, BFW is once again counting the bodies of women who have lost their lives at the hands of their current or former partners, fathers, sons, or other male relatives. The latest such case is the murder of Evgeniya Vladimirova from Sofia. She was killed in a particularly cruel manner by her husband, Orlin Vladimirov, who, with the help of his father, hide his wife’s body in a suitcase and dumped it on the outskirts of Pernik. Today Orlin “regrets what happened”, as if he had not done it himself, as if he was not a murderer. And as if he is not just another current (or former) husband or partner who kills a woman after years of abuse and domestic violence.
According to media reports and the website spasena.org, since the beginning of 2021, 15 women have lost their lives killed by a man close to them. This type of violence is called femicide. It is a gender-based hate crime – against a woman because she is a woman. These crimes are possible in this country, and all over the world, because of the patriarchal culture that says women should submit to men; because of gender stereotypes that say women should ‘know their place’ in the kitchen and caring for the children; because of the idea that jealousy is an affirmation of love and a perfectly legitimate reason to kill – even the courts interpret it as a mitigating circumstance rather than a dangerous signal of possessiveness and control. We repeat this crime is femicide. We remind you that definitions of gender-based violence, gender-based hate crimes, and femicide are absent from Bulgarian law. Neither in the Law on Protection from Domestic Violence nor in the Penal Code. They do not exist, despite the 15 women murdered this year, as we know from media reports, and despite the hundreds of women murdered in the last few years. We can only speculate about the true extent of the problem, as the state does not collect statistics, but according to the World Health Organisation and the European Agency for Human Rights (FRA), one in three women is a victim of violence.
The Bulgarian Fund for Women calls on the newly elected Members of Parliament and future members of the government, along with the Head of State, to prioritize combating domestic violence and violence against women, which affects one in three women in Bulgaria and is growing dramatically in the context of Covid-19, and to take the following measures immediately:
- Adopt the amendments to the Law on Protection from Domestic Violence which initiated and developed by the Ministry of Justice in early 2021 and received unprecedented support from a number of civil society organizations and experts during the public discussion. They will lead to the introduction of measures for the prevention of domestic violence and violence against women, the collection of official statistics on the extent of the problem (currently there are none), the opening of new crisis centers for the housing of victims of violence (one crisis center in each regional city), the creation of a coordinating body to combat domestic violence, etc.
- Introduce definitions of femicide, gender-based violence and gender-based hate crimes in the Law on Protection against Domestic Violence and in the Penal Code.
- Taking political responsibility for combating violence against women and domestic violence, strongly condemning any act of gender-based violence and taking an active role in tackling the problem by all responsible institutions.
- Investing in gender equality in Bulgaria and in organizations working for women’s rights, increased funding for services for victims of violence, including hotlines, funds for awareness campaigns to combat violence against women at a national level.
The Bulgarian Fund for Women believes that Bulgaria is in an unprecedented situation of political, economic and health crisis, but also has a chance for change and for political responsibility to be taken in order to tackle neglected societal problems. Violence against women and domestic violence is a societal problem of pandemic proportions. It is not a problem of women and girls in Bulgaria, but a problem of the whole of Bulgarian society, a problem that has real social and economic dimensions. As long as Bulgaria continues to be a graveyard for women, no crisis can be completely overcome and no reform qualitatively carried out.
We call on the future government and the future National Assembly to demonstrate real commitment against violence against Bulgarian citizens and to take immediate measures. Every day lost could cost lives. We call on the institutions to involve long-standing experts from the civil sector in solving the problem and to create conditions for constructive partnership! We also call on all Bulgarian citizens to have zero tolerance for domestic violence and violence against women! We urge you to declare your zero tolerance by coming also to the Protest against violence against women, organized by Feminist Mobilizations, which will be held on 25 November at 6.30 pm in front of the Court House under the slogan “Not One More”! Let no more Bulgarian women be harassed, abused, killed!
Photo: Protestto mark the International Day for the Elimination ofViolence againstWomen, in Sofia, Bulgaria. November 25, 2021, by Emil Metodiev.
