Photo illustrative: Michaela Danelová, Czech Radio
When the #MeToo campaign resonated in the Western world many Czechs were openly sceptical and even ridiculed what they considered to be a typical excess of Western feminism. Then two cases of multiple rape made media headlines – one involving Dominik Feri, at the time the youngest MP in the lower house of Parliament, and the other Jan Cimický, a well-known and respected psychiatrist who is now charged with 28 cases of rape committed mostly on his patients over the years. These cases appear to have been an eye-opener for many in the country.
I spoke to Karolína Křížová from Konsent, an NGO which focuses on preventing sexual violence and creating a safer environment for women, to find out her take on these two cases and the public response to them.
“It says a lot about how things are shifting in the society. Because when the first affair happened – which was the case of the young politician – many of the victims who came forward were denigrated and there were doubts among the general public about whether they were not making false accusations, whether it was not a conspiracy to bring him down. That must have been very difficult for all the victims.
See the rest here.