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All over Europe, voices are being raised against gynecological and obstetrical violence, that particular type of violence against women during childbirth and gynecological care. Many women are still subjected to abuse, brutal vaginal examinations, poor medical practices or procedures performed without their consent or in spite of their clearly expressed refusal. In Spain, Nahia Alkorta won UN condemnation of the state after she was forcibly delivered by C-section with her arms tied and her husband barred from entering the room. In Serbia, a petition signed by 70,000 people states that "many mothers in this country would rather forget the day they gave birth." In France, a report issued in 2018 by the High Council for Equality between Women and Men explains that obstetric and gynecological violence is widespread and systemic in the country. And yet nothing is moving. 

My name is Sonia, I am 43 years old. In 2015, I suffered obstetric violence during my delivery, which left me traumatized and painful for many years. I endured extremely violent forceps from an obstetrician, then an episiotomy without my consent, followed by a sewing of my perineum without anesthesia. A caregiver also violently jumped on my belly. I screamed to death, but the doctor, whom even his colleagues called "the butcher", didn't care about my pain and despised and ignored me. It was as if my body was at his disposal, that I had no say in the matter. He also bragged to my husband that he had given me the "husband's stitch", which consists of tightening the vagina more to supposedly increase the partner's pleasure. My intimate life was painful for two years. My mental health was not spared. I went through a long depression. I didn't want to live anymore, but nobody heard me and nobody believed me at the time. My case is unfortunately not isolated. 

Since then, with StopVOG, a collective that I founded, I fight so that we don't have to suffer such a martyrdom anymore. The concern is that this violence, not recognized by the law in most of our countries, is not even recognized by the Council of Europe Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Violence against Women, known as the Istanbul Convention.

This is why I am launching this petition. So that we, Europeans, ask for the inclusion of gynecological and obstetrical violence in the Istanbul Convention. This would oblige all the European signatory states to prevent such violence and, if necessary, to sanction it. 

So that our rights are never again violated in gynecological practices and maternity wards, so that the word of the victims is never again scorned, their complaints filed without follow-up, sign and share this petition.