"I didn't set out to raise a flag or feel like I was leading the way on anything. Violence existed, exists and hopefully will not exist in the future. Too many victims are now reporting, not because there was no abuse and harassment before, but because the environment and circumstances were not conducive to speaking out. The victim felt that he was to blame", said Sofia Bekatorou, speaking during the extensive special of the First Programme 91,6 and 105,8 about the path of the #metoo movement in Greece.
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Ms. Bekatorou noted that in the beginning it was very important for her to be able to deal with the sexual abuse she suffered by reporting it and not continuing to live with it. "On the other hand, since a #metoo dynamic has been created, I am very happy, mainly because it creates a climate of solidarity with the victims. I see it as a torch relay, we carry a flame of solidarity from one victim to another, one gives strength to the other and continues because at some point our culture must create a sense of guilt in the perpetrator and not in the victim."
"I will not say that it is easy to reach a complaint because it is not, we do not have the solutions to everything, as there are no structures to help. There are many difficulties both in the hostels and in how a woman can go to a public structure to ensure her health or if she has children. For example if she has a boy and he is over 12 she cannot take him with her. There are practical issues that need to be solved."
Sophia Bekatorou spoke about the initiative she developed together with the European Network Against Violence, the online platform menowmetoo.gr, where anyone can complain and report their own experience of gender violence, while maintaining their anonymity.
"I am disappointed in the field of sport. In the field of gymnastics there are 37 complaints of girls and the alleged perpetrators are currently in positions of responsibility, in the federation, in schools, in clubs," Bekatorou stressed, explaining that this is because some cases are overwritten.
"One problem we have is the statute of limitations and another is the attempt to launder these people. Unfortunately, so many things started from the field of sport, LefterisAygenakis helped with the legislative framework, there are now psychologists in the federations, but it does not mean that every coach has gone through a psychological evaluation process. We need to feel safe and to ensure the integrity of our field there must be procedures in place. For me, sport has helped me tremendously to get on my feet to find a way to deal with it and here it is time to deal with this part of it, the violence."
For her part, psychologist and president of the European Network against Violence, Kiki Petroulaki, explained that this body deals with violence against women and that domestic violence usually has women and children as victims, so the biggest part of its action concerns the prevention of violence, secondarily it attempts to reduce repeated victimization and thirdly to remove the consequences of violence. "It is not the way we raise boys and men, but the way we raise girls and boys. We essentially raise them as if they have complementary roles which they have not chosen, but until they realise they have the right to reject them and adopt a healthier approach to relationships, they are in an inferior position. "Even in female homicides we're looking for what the victim did wrong," he said."
Regarding the online platform, Ms Petroulaki noted that the complaint is made anonymously and if the person making the report consents, it will also be shared with the authorities so that cases can be linked together and one complaint can support the other.
A lawyer with experience in cases of revenge pornography, sexual abuse through the internet, Antonia Legaki, spoke on the same show, and expressed the view that we need to stop telling victims to "speak up". "The victim will speak up when the state really stands by, both with welfare structures and repressive structures as far as the perpetrators are concerned. The state should ensure that the platforms are required to have an application that will ensure that no one can upload the face or body of another person other than themselves and also that there are offences and perpetrators will be prosecuted for all the legal assets they have affected and not just for personal data" In addition, the society, should make clear the seriousness of these offences. There are young children who due to frivolity and lack of criteria from the family, upload such photos of classmates "noted Ms. Legaki and stressed that it must be made clear that this is a criminal behavior and is not acceptable.
Zefi Dimadama, a member of the Movement for Change who has denounced having been sexually harassed in the past, stressed during the tribute that the role of everyone, journalists, citizens, society and parties, is not to extinguish #metoo and to reveal many different parameters, such as that of revenge pornography, where we have too many cases of shaming women, cyber-rape, e-crimes that unfortunately technology gives outlets.
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