domestic violence case

["Gheorghe Stefanov" <stefanov@fil.unibuc.ro>]

> THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF ROMANIAN WOMEN - APFR TIMISOARA AND
> THE WOMEN' S STUDIES CENTRE OF TIMISOARA UNIVERSITY
>
> If you decide not to forward this, please send it back to us. This is an
> actual petition, and "signatures" will be lost if you drop the line. Please
> take 3 minutes out of your life to do your part.
>
>
> YOUR SOLIDARITY BADLY NEEDED!
>
>
> In the period 17-23 May 2001 APFR Timisoara in conjunction with other local
> NGOs organised and conducted the first public campaign against domestic
> violence and any form of violence perpetrated against women. This campaign
> is part of the European Union-financed programme The European Initiative for
> Democracy and Human Rights and more specifically of the project The Centre
> for Information, Intervention and Research into the Legislation and Legal
> practice relative to Romanian Women's Rights. The main aims of the campaign,
> which proved to be a success, have been:
>
>
> Awareness raising as to the concept of violence against women in our
> community and mobilising public opinion as well as the concerted efforts of
> politicians, mass media and legislators to take action against the
> disastrous effects of violence against women, a phenomenon which is
> perceived to be a blatant violation of human rights.
>
>
> Opening at least two centres for informing and counselling violence victims
> in two of the marginal districts of the city, with financial support from
> the Local and County Councils.
>
>
> Granting free medical examination and assistance to violence victims at the
> Forensic Medicine Institute
>
>
> A government-issued ordinance stipulating that the victim be protected from
> the aggressor through a restrained access injunction pending further legal
> proceedings
>
>
> One of the case studies that featured prominently during the campaign was
> that of ALICE CRISAN
>
> After a long history of abuse, taking into account Alice's age - 21, she
> decided to leave her abusive husband and she fled to her mother's three
> weeks before the events to be related. But on May 11, she gives in to her
> husband's repeated pleas and accepts to meet him in their former home. She
> is persuaded to go upstairs to their flat to take some clothes and see the
> newly bought furniture. Once the door is locked behind her, she is tied to a
> chair, savagely beaten and hit repeatedly in the abdomen to abort her baby
> (she was at the time 5 months pregnant). The abuser leaves the room only to
> return shortly after having had another drink, and he resumes torturing her.
> He cuts her hair; she is untied and sent to the bathroom to 'get rid' of the
> 'bastard'; she is in terrible pain so he lets her lie in bed, although he
> continues beating her. He leaves again only to return a quarter of an hour
> later. He sets fire to her hair, continues to threaten her, telling her that
> he would kill her and dump her into the river. She is sent once again to the
> bathroom but she is too weak at this stage and loses consciousness. Her
> bleeding intensifies; she can remember how she was wrapped into a wet sheet
> and she could hear him muttering something under his breath about fetching a
> saw to cut her up. Then he seems to be panicking, walking to-and-fro; he
> fetches a muffler, ties it round her head and says he would drive her away.
>
> At 9 p.m., after 8 hours of torture, he carries her into the car, drives her
> a short distance then changes his mind, calls a fellow taxi driver to take
> her home to her mother's, fearing her family's revenge. Her mother finally
> calls the ambulance and Alice is taken to hospital.
>
>
> Alice is the mother of two (one aged two and a half, the other only 11
> months); she aborted her third child during the events related above. Alice
> got married two years ago after having lived with her husband for a year and
> a half. She worked as a waitress in a bar, like her mother, and her 34-year
> old husband worked as a taxi driver. The victim comes from a large family,
> 10 children in all; she hasn't seen much of her father whom her mother got a
> divorce from many years before. Despite her rather frail appearance and her
> anaemia, she enjoyed relatively good health. Her children are at present
> entrusted to the care of her mother and her mother-in-law. Her husband was
> put under arrest and his depositions were found to be inconsistent in the
> extreme. According to one statement his wife stumbled and fell and thus
> sustained her injuries and according to yet another one some other men
> committed the violent acts after she had left home. Despite the staggering
> burden of evidence, he still pleads innocent. After Alice had been taken to
> hospital the police obtained a search warrant but had to wait quite a bit
> before the abuser let them in; he pretended to have been fast asleep and
> unable to hear the pounding on the door.
>
> He has a long history of abuse; he has another child by a Hungarian woman
> who had also accused him of life-endangering battery.
>
> According to the depositions of Alice and of her mother, her husband has
> always been violent, he beat her regularly: just before Christmas he beat
> her savagely, her face was all swollen and black and blue from the beating,
> but she had no one to turn to - her mother lives in a one-room flat with
> four of her youngest children. Alice had been systematically abused and
> terrible insults were hurled at her such as her being unfaithful and
> sleeping around, amongst others with her own brother. She was reduced to
> mere slavery and held prisoner in their home, she was forbidden to see her
> mother. He was mad with jealousy, repeatedly calling their second child
> illegitimate 'a bastard' and he even took the first born away from his
> mother and he compelled his own mother to raise his son. He never
> contributed to family expenses, never cared much for his children Alice had
> to struggle hard to meet all their needs from her own salary.
>
> He never wanted any of her children so when he found out that she was
> pregnant again he took her immediately to a hospital for abortion. But this
> time it was too late.
>
> The victim fears that her husband might be declared mentally ill and thus be
> exempted from punishment for his horrible deeds.
>
> The enquiry was conducted by APFR counsellors Vasile Moldovan and Yudit
> Bitai.
>
>
> If you think that our campaign deserves further attention, publicity and
> action express your solidarity by signing this appeal. Please mention your
> home address and institutional affiliation. Send your messages of solidarity
> to: Marga Fripp office@ikon.dnttm.ro or Reghina Dascal rdascal@mail.dnttm.ro
>
>
>
>
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> Fripp and Reghina Dascal
>
> Even if you decide not to sign, PLEASE pass it on, so as not to kill the
> petition.
>
>
>  1) Serban Mihaela
> The Ford Foundation, 320 East 43rd Street, New York, NY, 10017
>
> 2) Liliana Popescu
> Civic Education Project Romania, Bd.Unirii 76, bl.J3A, sc.A, ap.2,
> Bucuresti, Romania
>
> 3) Speranta Nalin
>Universite de Paris 10, 125 Quai de Valmy, Paris, 75010, France
>
>4) Gheorghe Stefanov
>Dep. of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Intr. Med. Col. Stoenescu, no. 4,
>Bucharest, Romania