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Austria: Concern over the growing number of female homicides

In Austria, the homicides are becoming more frequent, a fact that worries the authorities as the murders recorded in the country are few. From 2010 to 2020, a total of 319 women were murdered, most of them by current or ex-husbands, according to a report requested by the government. In 2021 another 31 victims were added. This is one of the highest rates in EU, based on its data Eurostat.

The issue was neglected in Austria and came to the forefront of the debate only after some particularly heinous crimes. On March 5, 2021, the ex-partner of a 35-year-old woman, Nandin B., tried to strangle her with a cable and then burn her alive. The woman succumbed to her injuries a month later.

In April, a man was arrested for killing his ex-partner, a mother of two. The 43-year-old man who was sentenced to life was already known to the authorities after an environmentalist MP had published in 2018 vulgar messages he had sent to Facebook.

An awareness campaign has been launched by her government ever since Austria intensified its efforts, offering almost 25 million euros in 2022 to tackle violence against women. In order not to forget those who were killed, the Anna Badhofer began writing the names of the victims on a wall in Vienna.

“Few resent” for these crimes, “for the unprecedented violence,” complains the activist, who wants to mobilize society. He cites the example of a young woman, who was left by her partner to rest on the steps of a public building, after he had beaten her with a baseball bat.

“As a refugee in my country”

THE Karin Pfolts, the same victim for 10 years of violence by her husband, still remembers her loneliness. “There is no one to talk to. “Many of us are silent out of shame, out of fear for the reaction of society,” he explains. She now goes to schools to share her experience.

Externally the violence was not obvious, as it hid the bruises from the blows. Proportionally fewer women are killed by their partners in Russia or the Brazil, countries that are considered particularly dangerous in relation to Austria.

But in a calm and prosperous context, where there are laws and a support network, “the situation is incomprehensible,” she said. Maria Wesselhumer, responsible for AOF, the main association that manages the reception centers for abused women.

The phenomenon is partly explained by the fact that many mothers stay at home or have a part-time job in this universal country and often do not have the means to leave a violent partner.

Women in Austria earn 20% less money than men, an unprecedented difference in EU, with the exception of Estonia and Lithuania.

In these circumstances few dare to take the step. “If you leave, you will be on the road with a plastic bag in one hand and your child in the other,” she said. Pfolts. When she decided to leave her partner, she felt “like a refugee in my own country.”

THE Wesselhummer He also spoke of a “lack of real respect and humiliation for women” in the political arena, a fact that has intensified under the far-right Conservative government coalition from 2017 to 2019. Although he welcomes the authorities’ awakening, still “deficiencies”.

“It’s true that we’re talking a lot about this now,” she said Pfolts. But even now “almost no one” is affected by the abuse of women, he says. “Until there is a murder.”

Shortly after entering 2022, another victim was recorded: a 42-year-old woman fell dead from bullets from her husband’s hand, who killed her at the table at dinner time.

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