Femicide crisis escalates: Thousands protest in France

On Saturday, November 22, 2025, thousands of people across France took to the streets to express their anger and frustration over ongoing violence against women and to demand public action and increased funding to address the crisis.

In Paris, protesters gathered in significant numbers, holding banners that read: “In France, a woman is killed every 2.5 days.” Another banner stated: “In 9 out of 10 sexual assault cases, the perpetrator is known to the victim.”

According to Helsinki Times, France is recognized as one of Europe’s most violent countries for women due to high rates of femicide and sexual violence.

The president of the National Federation of Victims of Femicide, whose sister was killed in 2017, said: “It is 2025—are we still counting our dead women as if this is normal?”

The organizations behind the protests are calling for the passage of comprehensive legislation against violence, accompanied by a €3 billion ($3.5 billion) budget for implementation. They also demand improved training and funding for groups supporting victims of violence.

Official statistics released on Thursday by MIPROF, the agency tasked with protecting women against violence and combating human trafficking in France, show that femicides by current or former partners increased by about 11% between 2023 and 2024, with 107 women killed by a current or former partner.

According to the agency, every 2 minutes a woman is a victim of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault, and every 23 seconds a woman experiences sexual harassment.

A women’s rights organization estimated that the minimum annual budget the government should allocate to support victims of domestic and sexual violence is €2.6 billion, equivalent to 0.5% of the national budget.

In 2024, women in France faced an increasing risk of lethal violence from current or former partners, with official data indicating that more than three women were killed or nearly killed each day.

The National Observatory on Violence Against Women reported that every 7 hours, a woman is killed, survives an attempted murder, or is driven to suicide or suicidal behavior by a current or former partner.

According to the observatory, in the past year, 107 women in France were victims of domestic femicide, 270 women were subjected to attempted femicide, and 906 women experienced harassment or abuse leading to suicide attempts or self-harm.

Earlier, the observatory warned that the documented harms in these statistics remain severe and are increasing.

The observatory also reported that 1,283 women in 2024 were directly or indirectly victims of femicide or attempted femicide, compared to 1,196 in 2023, averaging 3.5 women per day. These figures only include intimate partner relationships and do not reflect all cases of femicide or violence-related deaths outside of partnerships.

Meanwhile, survey data from the French Ministry of the Interior on “Experiences and Perceptions of Security” in 2023 show that every 2 minutes a woman is subjected to rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault.