Silent march in Warsaw for woman who died after being raped in street

A silent march was held on Wednesday evening in Warsaw in memory of a woman who died last week from injuries sustained when she was raped by a man who had followed her home at night. The case has prompted shock and anger, including over the fact that people witnessed the attack but failed to intervene.

The march was held under the slogan “Her name was Liza” in reference to the nickname used by Lizaveta, the 25-year-old Belarusian woman who was the victim of the attack.

Around 2,000 people attended the event, reports the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper. They walked in silence through the streets of Warsaw, holding placards in Polish, Ukrainian and Belarusian with slogans including “We don’t want to be afraid anymore”, “A woman is not prey”, and “Solidarity”.

“We are here to make this world safer, so that we don’t have to be afraid, so that our daughters don’t have to be afraid, so that women who come to Poland don’t have to be afraid,” said Maja Staśko, a women’s rights activist. “Liza, we will not forget about you.”

Earlier, she told broadcaster TVN that Liza had come to Poland as a refugee fleeing the Belarusian regime. “She came to Poland and was looking for a safe space here, but she was tortured by her attacker while people were passing by and did not react,” said Staśko.

Among those who had encouraged people to attend the march was Belarusian opposition leader-in-exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. “We cannot bring Liza back to life. But we can be her voice, the voice of all women who have experienced violence. Because silence is not an option here,” she wrote.

The march began on Warsaw’s Żurawia Street, where the attack took place early on the morning of Sunday 25 February as Liza returned from a night out.

Her naked, unconscious body was found in the doorway of a tenement house after she had been attacked by a man who beat, strangled and raped her. She died in hospital five days later.

A suspect was detained on the same day as the attack after police used surveillance footage and tracker dogs to trace his movements. The 23-year-old Polish man can be named only as Dorian S. under Polish privacy law.

He has been charged with murder and, according to a police spokesman, Robert Szumiata, has admitted to the crime, reports broadcaster TVN. Police say that the victim was unknown to the perpetrator and that it was likely a random attack.

The incident caused particular shock because it took place right in the heart of Warsaw, in a busy area known for its lively nightlife, and surveillance cameras showed that two women walked by as the attack was taking place.

Later, after the witnesses heard in the media what had happened, they reported to police to provide testimony. They said that they had not realised an attack was taking place, instead believing that two people were having consensual intercourse, reports TVN.

In response to the crime, local authorities in the Śródmieście district of Warsaw where it took place decided to expand a pre-existing programme offering free self-defence courses for women. They are also planning to introduce more street patrols and CCTV cameras.

However, many commentators and activists have argued that the emphasis should be on stopping men from carrying out such crimes in the first place rather than on helping women defend themselves from them.

“I hope that this tragedy, if anything can come of it, will lead not only to changes in legislation but also for us to attack this topic [of sexual violence] from every angle: in schools, the media, for influencers to do it,” one of the organisers of yesterday’s march, Karolina Sulej, told the Interia news website.

Speaking to the Polish Press Agency (PAP), Sulej added that “as a society, we raise our future women and men in such a way that a culture of rape is being built”.

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Main image credit: Dawid Zuchowicz / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.