In France’s Southern and Antarctic Territories (TAAF), dealing with violence against women can be complicated by the distance and isolated lives of people living on these lost islands, thousands of miles from the metropolis that is serviced four times a year the ship Marion Dufresne.
“I confirm the Taaf administration’s total commitment to the prevention and fight against harassment and violence of a moral or sexual nature,” assured Prefect Florence Jeanblanc-Risler in a letter sent to winterers of the Amsterdam island on Friday.
The young woman’s complaint was dismissed and the Taaf administration also offered her to leave this remote island, 3,000 km from Réunion, where about thirty researchers, soldiers and Taaf employees spend a whole year together. She finally agreed to go.
– “Double Penalty”
“A choice that gives him the double penalty of harassment and leaving the base,” said about thirty winter sports enthusiasts in an open letter, which also underlined the “heavy and harmful” atmosphere that has prevailed on the base since facts.
In that December 19 letter, they expressed their dismay at the “treatment” of “sexist and sexual violence in the Taaf.”
“This complex situation has deteriorated, I have taken measures to bring the situation back to normal,” the prefect told AFP, specifying that the person in question will also leave the island on “decision management” in the spring.
Further south, residents of the Kerguelen Archipelago, one of the five districts that make up the Taaf, are also being mobilized.
Following a letter from their neighbors in Amsterdam, on December 25 they sent the prefect a series of proposals for preventive and supportive measures, because “situations of aggression and harassment are not isolated cases in the Taaf”.
The prefect indicated that she “could not see any flaws in the system in what has been done” but promised to “start a reflection on the methods and means to ‘deep’ the part of the interviews in January which refers to the candidates’ capacity to cope with a private and professional life in an isolated environment”, “to strengthen prevention and awareness-raising measures” and “to appoint an officer for these issues at headquarters”.
Mixing was only introduced in 1994 for winter guests. Until then, women could only come to Crozet, Amsterdam or Kerguelen for a few months during the “summer campaign”.
– “Essential Mix”
In their Recommendations, the winter residents of Kerguelen suggest that the Taaf send out a questionnaire periodically in order to be able to compile statistics.
They also propose setting up a wiretapping unit made up of a group of trained, volunteer residents, a measure intended for people who don’t want to go through authorities to get reports.
“We are in an isolated environment with an imbalance between men and women. We attract the attention of people who are about to leave and we go through a rigorous selection process that can certainly be reinforced,” admits Ms Jeanblanc-Risler.
On the islands, officials play the prevention card.
“Women’s place is crucial because it forces everyone to think twice before they say anything,” said Crozet District Manager Cyrille Jacob.
A feminine presence that provides some balance and also “avoids behaviors that some would call masculine and which I would also call sassy. This mix is essential,” the manager continues.
“I said at the beginning that there were only 17 girls, we don’t touch them because they’re the minority,” Kerguelen district leader Valérie Covacho confides, adding: “If the men were in the minority, they are the ones I would protect”.