Eighteen women's organizations and feminist groups rallied before the Greek Parliament on Friday night to protest the murders of women by their partners or family members.
Marchers chanted the mottos "Say it by its true name, it's femicide! Nothing less," "No more macho bullying!" to commemorate the victims, a total of 17 women killed in 2021 alone. The names of the victims and the circumstances of their deaths were read out by two actors, Loukia Pitsiola and Leonidas Kakouris, at the rally.
Participants included the mother of Garyfallia, 26, a young woman killed by her boyfriend on Folegandros in the summer of 2021, and the mother of Erato, who was killed by her partner on Lesvos island in 2019. A message of support was sent by the parents of Eleni Topaloudi, who was murdered on Rhodes island in 2018. Garyfallia's mother called for "a life sentence that is truly a life sentence," and the recognition of the term 'femicide' ('gynaikoktonia', in Greek).
Young marchers carried signs with the numbers 1 to 17 to highlight the number of the victims.
In a statement read out at the protest, it mentioned that 17 women "are no longer with us because society trains boys to be macho and girls to be victims, available as murderers and victims of the future, habituated early on to the unbridled insticts of violence between the sexes, sexist projection of the crime, and multiple television garbage games, a supposedly entertainment."