Two crimes against women this month have spurred renewed calls from activists and leftist opposition political parties to include a crime of femicide in Greece's criminal code. A husband and his male friend have been accused of stabbing to death the wife, a 41-year-old pregnant woman, in northern Greece. And in the suburbs of Athens, a 45-year-old Roma woman was doused with flammable material by her husband and set on fire, burning 90 percent of her body; she has so far survived. The European Observatory on Femicide documented 31 cases of femicide in Greece in 2021, 24 in 2022, and 10 through Dec. 5, 2023. The Council of Europe's Group of Experts on Action against Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, GREVIO, has urged Greece to set up sexual violence crisis centers, introduce training and guidelines in the criminal justice system, expand the number of shelters for women victims, and ensure that children exposed to domestic violence receive counseling support.
Compiled from: Eleni Stamatoukou, "Pregnant Woman's Brutal Killing Fuels Femcide Debate in Greece," BalkanInsight Jan. 10, 2024.