The campaign “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” was held for a fourth successive year in Sofia. During the campaign, men put high heels to raise public awareness to the problem with violence against women. Bulgarian Fund for Women, together with the European Parliament Information Office, Bulgarian Red Cross, Council of Refugee Women in Bulgaria, Bulgarian Helsinki Committee and Bilitis Resource Center Foundation, organized the march, which this year took place on the 13th of March. Despite the bad weather many supporters of the cause gathered to express clearly their solidarity with the victims of violence.
The executive director of BFW Nadejda Dermendzhieva opened the event with a call for an immediate ratification from Bulgarian side of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. The so-called “Istanbul Convention” is the only international treaty, which aims at the full elimination of violence against women. It demands for states to accept in their national legislations and apply three groups of measures: prevention of violence against women, protection of victims and prosecution of pepetrators. Dermendzieva highlighted that men wearing high heels will probably be a subject of negative comments and added that that people who make them could be among violators/are violators. According to her, the struggle against violence against women cannot be successful without the active participation of men.
Monika Pisankaneva, chairwoman of Bilitis Resource Center Foundation, drew the audience attention to the need of discussions in other fields too, which would bring legislative changes. She asked, at least, for institutions working for prevention and provision of protection of victims more effectively. She added that the event helps women to be braver and start speaking out. Every fourth woman in Bulgaria is a victim of domestic violence but very few are the victims who talk about this problem and who report and seek protection, Pisankaneva said.
This year the event focused on violence against LBT women and refugee women. According to EU data, 55% of lesbians, 46% of bisexual and 47% of transgender women have been victims of discrimination or harassment, while asylum seeking girls in the EU are among the most vulnerable groups and are very common victims of gender-based violence.
