Désirée Deneo (29 years old) is founder and general secretary of the first association declared as feminist in the Ivory Coast, The Ivorian League of Women’s Rights (Ivorian League for Women’s Rights), better known as LaLigue225, which was born in 2020 through social networks after a media case of gender violence. The association has already assisted more than 1,500 women victims of violence. “In 2010 and 2012, when you claimed to be a feminist on social networks, inside you felt ay ay ay. dThen I realized that I was not alone and I started sharing texts and debating, now I feel very calm because feminism has also brought me my best friends.”
She was born in the city but grew up in rural Ivory Coast, where the forced marriage of a childhood friend made her aware of injustice and chance. “If she had been born in another family, her father would not have decided to marry her to a man.” Now Deneo finishes her doctorate on the impact of the borders between Ivory Coast, Guinea and Liberia on the lives of women, a research work that she then applies to her militant life.
Ask. What does the number 225 have to do with LaLiga?
Answer. Our movement started online and 225 is the telephone area code for Ivory Coast. At first we were Ivorian feminist militants who met on the internet but each from their own space. We talked about violence against women and our own experiences. The trigger was a high-profile case of gender violence involving a woman whose husband threw her from a third-floor balcony, here in Abidjan. It was then when we began to report what had happened through social networks, especially Facebook. This is how LaLigue was born225. And so we began to organize.
Q. What objective does LaLigue225 have?
R. There are women who They call us or contact us online. We do psychological listening and legal support. There are women who call us just because they need to leave home and don’t know how to do it, and others because they have been raped and need help. Our main objective is to fight against violence and for women’s rights.
Q. Is it the first feminist movement in Ivory Coast?
R. He is the first to openly claim to be a feminist. Before we were active separately, each in her own small space or life, but when we saw that there were women who contacted us to ask for help, that was when we decided to organize and create an association to seek funding.
Q. Because?
R. It was exhausting because we were using our own resources. A medical certificate to report rape at the police station costs between 35,000 and 50,000 francs [entre 53 y 76 euros]. Every day we receive about 10 calls. Do your math.
Q. But according to the law it has to cost 5,000 francs [7,6 euros] and the State subsidizes 2,500, right?
R. The laws arebut they do not apply.
Q. How did you start posting feminist content and debating on social media?
R. In 2010 and 2012, when you claimed to be a feminist on social networks, inside you felt ay ay ay. dAfter I realized that I was not alone and I started sharing texts and debating, now I feel very calm because feminism has also brought me my best friends.
Q. She is teaching the first course on African feminism at the Abidjan University Institute (IUA).
R. Sometimes it is thought that feminism is something imported from the West. I want to recover the feminism that existed before colonization and until now, of women who have fought for their rights.
Q. What examples do you explain in your classes?
R. In 1949 there was a large women’s demonstration known as “The Grand-Bassam Women’s March.” [una ciudad costera al este de Abiyán]. History has been responsible for saying that they were fighting for the release of the political leaders of the Democratic Party of the Ivory Coast. [PDCI, en sus siglas en francés] imprisoned by the French colonial authorities, but the truth is that they had a political commitment, they boycotted imported products and looked for strategies to organize themselves during colonization. The struggle of women has always existed, you just have to go look for them in history.
We constantly receive threats for saying we are feminists. Well yes, we are feminists, there is no room for doubt
Q. In Cameroon, businessman Hervé Bopda was arrested after dozens of anonymous complaints on the social network #stopbopda, in January. The movement has been described by the media as the African Me Too.
R. There are women who have fought for their rights before Me Too. In the media it is said that this is the African Me Too, but we must not take African struggles to what is happening in the West.
Q. Can you say in public that you are a feminist?
R. We constantly receive threats for saying we are feminists. Well yes, we are feminists, there is no room for doubt, we are feminists and that’s it. There are people who don’t feel comfortable because they say that we want to change traditions, but I don’t want to think that feminism is not something African.
Q. Why do you talk about feminisms, in the plural?
R. Lusophones are on another level, as are Anglophones. Here in West Africa it also changes depending on the country. In Mali it is very difficult to work, just like in Burkina Faso, and in Niger I won’t even tell you about it. Each country has its specificities and specific issues. We must talk about African movements, in the plural. For example, in Cape Verde abortion is legal, but it is not in Ivory Coast.
Everyone can talk about a woman’s body, but here a woman cannot decide about her own body.
Q. She wears a necklace that represents a clitoris.
R. I’ve had it for four years. It is a way to remind myself of the importance of the body. Everyone can talk about a woman’s body, but here the woman cannot decide about her own body.
Q. Does it refer to the right to abortion?
R. Here in Africa women have been selling cotton leaves and herbs for abortion for centuries. It has always existed in our practices, but even when a woman wants to have an abortion, behind her there is a man who pays for her medications because she does not want to bear the pregnancy. The woman still cannot de
cide. It is not an African or religious issue, it is the patriarchal system. After the ratification of the Maputo Protocol [como se conoce a la Carta Africana sobre los Derechos de la Mujer en África, adoptada en 2003]progress should have been made in the law on sexual and reproductive health, but it is precisely the issue of abortion that prevents progress because, simply, there is no debate.
Q. How did you start military?
R. I always tell my mother that she was the one who made me a feminist. As a child she read Mariama Ba, Fatou Keïta either Regina Yaou. If you grow up with these authors, there comes a time when you have no other option. But what moved me, what stayed here [se toca con la palma de la mano el pecho] It was when they married a childhood friend whom I acted like an older sister. If she had been born in another family, her father would not have decided to marry her to a man.
Q. And your university career?
R. I studied a master’s degree in migration. My final master’s thesis was about how borders impact women. I went to look for testimonies on the border between Guinea, Ivory Coast and Liberia. There were many women who left during the Ivorian civil war [intermitente entre 2002 y 2011]. I began to find cases of teenage pregnancy, rape in schools, and systematic violence against women. When I finished the job, I was traumatized. There are academics who do their work, collect testimonies and return home. I didn’t return home, I was at home, in my country.
Q. Are you privileged in your country?
R. Yes. That’s why I don’t want to go into the field, ask for information, present a report and that’s it. I want to go, reflect and provide answers thanks to my militant work. An academic of action. Not like you journalists, who look for information and leave [ríe].
Q. Have you found answers?
R. There is a forced change in our society. Little by little there are more of us and we are less afraid to speak. But we don’t have data yet, statistics, there is nothing.
Q. And regarding LGTBIQ rights?
R. Even for our safety we cannot talk much about it. Here men rape lesbians because they believe they lack the experience of being with a man. It is an extremely sensitive topic within society.
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