More than 300 Senegalese women have filed lawsuits in Dakar today against the chair of the Miss Senegal pageant, whom they accuse of “praising rape”.
In interviews with the local press last week, 20-year-old Miss Senegal 2020 Daye Fatima Dione revealed that she was drugged and raped in a hotel during an evening to which she had been invited by the organizing committee.
She became pregnant and today is the mother of a 5-month-old baby, whose father she ignores, according to reports.
The day after Dejie Fatima’s revelations, Miss Senegal organizing committee chairwoman Amina Bandiane said in a press conference that “a rape involves two people”. “If someone rapes you, you look for them. “She is an adult,” he said.
His statements provoked strong reactions of condemnation from women and women’s rights organizations.
“More than 300 lawsuits have been filed by the time we left the court, early in the afternoon. “An idea for a collective action was raised on social media and those who agreed to fill out the form were invited to meet in court to file a lawsuit,” Jourej Tiam Preira, a member of the Women’s Collective in Court, told AFP today. meet the prosecutor.
“It’s a way to incite rapists to go on and endanger girls,” he said.
In addition to the “praise rape” lawsuit, the plaintiffs are seeking the revocation of the beauty pageant organizer’s license and are demanding that the state entrust the event to “persons who respect women’s rights more,” Preira said.
