Around a hundred civil society organizations and personalities are calling for a profound reform of the family code but also for the recognition of feminism. In their manifesto, they explain the relevance of moving towards this campaign called “Luy Jot Jot na. »
Their names were Souadou Sow, Yamou Ndiaye, Sadel Sow, Kindy Bah, Diène Dia, Marie Louise Ndour, Fatou Gueye, Aissatou Ba, Coumba Dali Diallo, Khady Fall, Mariama Coulibaly, Mariama Ba, Fatou N., Mariama Keita, Khady Gueye, Mariama Sadio Diallo, Bintou Gueye.
They were different women whom destiny brought together by the same tragic end: a brutal death, at the hands of a torturer husband or a neglectful family. They are not the only ones to have experienced such a fate in 2025, but they are the face of a violence which does not move
more and which has become a banality.
Citing their names is a necessary act: it is a reminder that they lived and existed beyond the news items. But above all it is to denounce the ease with which their lives were taken from them.
Because in our societies, a woman’s life can stop for an unprepared lunch or a late dinner.
Femicide is not a marital drama. This is neither an argument that escalates, nor a news item. Femicide is the assassination of a woman because she is a woman, in a context of relations of domination structured by gender. It is the most extreme expression
misogyny, made possible by persistent inequalities and the inaction of public authorities.
Femicides are part of a widely documented continuum of violence. In November 2024, the ANSD published a national reference survey on rigorously documented violence against women, based on official statistical data.
This survey reveals that nearly one in three women in Senegal have suffered at least one form of violence, physical, psychological, sexual or economic over the last twelve
month. This violence mainly takes place in the marital or family context, that is to say in the space that society continues to consider private.
This observation is all the more serious as these realities are known to the State. The data exists, the alerts are raised, but the political responses remain insufficient. For years, the various feminist and popular movements have been warning about the same realities: the trivialization of domestic violence, the politicization of women’s bodies, the insufficiency of protection mechanisms, the absence of legal and political recognition of violence, and the maintenance of social and legal frameworks unfavorable to women. These alerts are known. They are documented. Yet they continue to be ignored by our society and by our ruling class.
In Senegal, violence against women in the marital and family context is still too often relegated to the private sphere, considered secondary, domestic. This reading is not only false, it is dangerous. Because what
is presented as isolated is in reality part of a systemic phenomenon, produced by a social, legal and political climate which tolerates, makes invisible and minimizes patriarchal violence.
Since the start of 2025, more than 17 women have been killed in Senegal in a marital or family context. Faced with this observation, a question arises. If feminicides are the product of a system that has been known, documented and denounced for years, what does the State do with this responsibility? And above all, what is the value of public speech when the announced commitments remain without effect?
And we ask the question clearly: what good are electoral promises when they commit to nothing?
We would like to recall the commitments made by President Bassirou Diomaye Faye in his political program “Diomaye president” concerning the empowerment and promotion of women for an inclusive and prosperous society, still at a standstill:
- The establishment of mechanisms to prevent and combat gender-based violence, in particular domestic violence, through the strengthening of laws, public policies and protection and support systems for victims;
- The deployment of awareness and education programs aimed at transforming discriminatory social and cultural norms, promoting gender equality and combating stereotypes from an early age;
- Authorization of paternity research for women and girls who are victims of
unwanted pregnancies, with expanded access to justice funds for DNA testing and psychological support for victims of sexual violence;
- The systematic payment of the deceased woman’s pension to her beneficiaries,
including when the spouse is a worker;
- The expansion of women’s parental authority through a reform of the Senegalese Family Code.
Meanwhile, women are dying in settings that the state continues to consider
as private, domestic or secondary. And yet, the Senegalese state itself recognizes
the existence of legal discrimination against women.
In 2017, a Technical Committee placed under the authority of the Ministry of Justice identified numerous discriminatory provisions in the Family Code, the Penal Code and the texts governing reproductive health. This is institutional, rigorous, and aligned work
on Senegal’s international commitments. What this report reveals is that certain inequalities are not simply a matter of practices
social, but are produced by the law itself. Unequal age at marriage, unbalanced family/parental authority, inability for women to research paternity, almost absolute criminalization of abortion, implicit tolerance of forced marriage, all provisions which contradict the constitutional principle of equality.
So a question arises: if the State recognizes discrimination, why does it refuse to act?
On March 1, 2024, the ministerial council on the evaluation and definition of priorities for policies to promote and support women took place, chaired by the Prime Minister. Among the twelve recommendations, one particularly caught our attention: the establishment of a technical committee responsible for proposing to the Government the revision of certain provisions of the Family Code. Invoking the principle of continuity of the State, we question the current Prime Minister, as well as the Minister of Family and Solidarity on the state of progress of this public policy 21 months later.
Historically, regarding this subject, the status quo has been presented as a choice of wisdom, in the name of social cohesion and religious consensus. In reality, this status quo is a political choice and it has concrete consequences.
We would like to recall that the Family Code adopted in 1972 and revised for the last time in 1999, aimed to unify a legal landscape shared between colonial law and local customs.
and religious norms. This choice made it possible to avoid legal chaos, but it also institutionalized profound imbalances, in particular to the detriment of women and children. Reforming the Family Code is therefore not giving in to external pressure or importing new
foreign values. On the contrary, it means honoring the legal commitments freely entered into by the State, and recognizing that equality cannot remain an abstract principle. Here, the State’s responsibility to protect all citizens is directly called into question. This daily violence exists, official figures attest to it and the facts confirm it.
In view of this, the elimination of a ministry dedicated to the condition of women appears to be a significant signal. Even as the violence persists and worsens, the current government has chosen to dissolve the Ministry of Women to replace it
by a Ministry of Family and Solidarity, thus diluting the specific issues linked to the rights and protection of women in a generalist approach.
We are calling on the Senegalese press here. When a feminicide is headlined as a sensational fact, when we talk about a “marital drama”, when the death of a woman is reported as a confrontation where one would have “gained the upper hand”, when the media speak of an accident, it is not neutral. These word choices depoliticize violence and make it almost acceptable. A woman does not “lose” a fight. She is killed.
The point here is not to incriminate, but to call for collective responsibility. Word choices and story angles shape popular opinion. Femicides must be named for what they are.
This responsibility also extends to production houses and the Senegalese audiovisual industry. The series broadcast daily shape the collective imagination. However, too often, women’s suffering is aestheticized, almost glamorized. These
The latter are locked in violent relationships, psychologically and/or physically, without this violence being clearly denounced. The woman stays, endures, remains silent. Violence becomes a banal narrative element, a dramatic spring among
others, never questioned as a political or social issue. What is shown as normal ends up being seen as acceptable.
This is not a question of denying creative freedom or demanding activist works, however, production houses have a major cultural and social responsibility. Audiovisual is not neutral. It can either reproduce the norms that confine and expose women to
violence, or contribute to deconstructing them.
We are also calling on the Senegalese parliamentarians who initiated the proposed laws. They are supposed to represent the population and act in the general interest.
Their role is not symbolic: it is central in the production of law and in the prioritization of political priorities. However, recent precedents show that Parliament is capable of mobilizing quickly when it comes to preserving political interests. The recent vote on the law interpreting the amnesty law is a worrying illustration. When it comes to securing political balances, Parliament demonstrates its ability to legislate quickly, interpret the law and mobilize its institutional mechanisms. On the other hand, this same diligence disappears when it comes to protecting the lives of women. The recognition of femicide as a specific crime or the reform of the Family Code, although announced, remain relegated to the background by being categorized as complex.
This difference in treatment is not accidental. It reflects a political hierarchy of emergencies, in which the legal security of political actors takes precedence over the physical security of women.
In view of these findings, we call on all progressive and popular forces to join our “Luy Jot Jot na” campaign for the inalienable rights of women.
SIGNATORIES
1) Front for an Anti-imperialist, Popular and Pan-African Revolution (FRAPP)
2) Collective of Feminists of Senegal
3) Senegal Action Féministe
4) Collective is sufficient.
5) Amnesty Senegal
6) Collective of Lawyers for the Defense of Women’s Rights (CJDF)
7) Cultural Actresses Together (ACE)
8) JGEN Senegal
9) Afrikajom Center
10) ActionAid International Senegal
11) African Convergence for Democracy and Human Rights (Sen_CADDHU)
12) Y’en a marre
13) West African Network of Young Women Leaders (ROAJELF Senegal)
14) Siggil Jigeen Network
15) Platform of Women for Peace in Casamance
16) Collective of women for the defense of the family
17) African Volunteers Organization
18) LEGS-Africa: Leadership, Ethics, Governance, Strategies for Africa
19) Network of feminists in Senegal
20) Honorable Fama Bachir BA, deputy of the 15th legislature
21) Honorable Marieme Mbacké, deputy of the 15th legislature
22) Honorable Guy Marius Sagna, deputy of the 15th legislature
23) Honorable Thierno Alassane Sall, deputy of the 15th legislature and former minister
24) Honorable Matar Sylla, deputy of the 15th legislature
25) Aminata Touré, former prime minister
26) Fatima Mbengue, director general of the national office for the wards of the nation
27) Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, writer
28) Seydi Gassama, director Amnesty Senegal
29) Alioune Tine, founder Afrikajom Center
30) Moundiaye Cissé, 3D NGO
31) Awa Fall Diop, former minister, feminist activist
32) Call PCA, PCA SODAV
33) Serigne Assane Mbacké, political leader Pastef Touba
34) Maître Amadou Diallo, lawyer at court
35) Commissioner Harona SY, former exceptional class divisional commissioner
36) Soham Wardini, former mayor of the city of Dakar
37) Aminata Libain Mbengue, feminist activist, clinical psychologist
38) Aida Niang, deputy mayor of the city of Dakar
39) Fatou Warkha Sambe, journalist, co-coordinator Network of Feminists in Senegal
40) Chérif Dia, Journalist
41) Ayoba Faye, journalist-blogger
42) Oussama Monique Sagna, journalist, feminist activist
43) Abibatou Samb, lawyer and president of the NGO Voix de Victime
44) Ndeye Fatou Kane, Researcher in sociology of gender, feminist activist
45) Maimouna Yade, lawyer specializing in gender, development and human rights
46) Zoubida case, authors
47) Ndeye Dieumbe Diagne, AFROPES Kaolack
48) Ndeye Bouba Seck, Journalist, coordinator of Altercom and director of Manoorefm
49) Oulimata Suzanne SY, financial controller, feminist activist, pan-African50) Rayhana Diallo, Social entrepreneur and executive director of FAM
51) Elimane Haby Kane: Director of LEGS-Africa
52) Matyto Nakamura, director – voice-over actress
53) Dr. Oumou Fadly Touré, gender and health integration expert
54) Ngoné Sarr, president of the Bàjjanu Gox of Ouakam, president of the Molaadé association
55) Adama Pouye, feminist activist, librarian, communicator
56) Saliou Seck (Raeve), lawyer
57) Aminata Ndiaye, collective coordinator Shared Parental Authority Sunu Yité
58) Ndeye Dieumb Tall, feminist activist, hospitality project manager
59) Anta Dia Ly, regional president of the Bàjjanu Gox of Kaolack
60) Dr Sely Ba, sociologist
61) Aida Mbaye, consultant lawyer, SGA/AJS
62) Halimatou Sarr, president of the Mères Actives association
63) Elhadj Abdoulaye Seck, research economist at ENAP in Quebec
64) Khaita Sylla, country director, ActionAid international Senegal
65) Ousmane Gueye, Pastef activist, political communicator
66) Thiane Ndiaye, Professional Coach
67) Fatouma Diallo, feminist activist, content creator and fashion designer
68) Tope Thiaw, sociologist and project manager at JGEN
69) Asta Walo Babou, research manager at Afrikajom center
70) Wasso Tounkara, trainer in creative activism
71) The Ndiaye, Coordantric Task force/Senegal
72) Marina Kabou, feminist activist
73) Wane knows, you swore
74) Awa Diop, researcher at IFAN
75) Gacko Ndéye Mingué Ndiaté Ndiaye, state midwife
76) Binta Astel Niane, feminist activist
77) Brice Dié Koué, teacher, communications manager
78) Paap Seen, media administrator
79) Ibrahima Badiane, agripreneur
80) Aliou Gérard Koïta, anti-imperialist revolutionary
81) Mamadou Wane, sociologist
82) Safiétou Diop, president of the Siggil Jigéen network
83) Coumba Dieng, president Bàjjanu Gox west district
84) Amadou Demba Baldé, bank executive
85) Mohamadou Mahmoune Diop, teacher
86) Amadou Korka Sow, membre Alternatiba
87) Thierno Sora Ndiaye, engineer technologist
88) Fatoumata Diallo, head of gender and equity unit at the Ministry of Urban Planning
89) Fatiu Di to the Dif, the earth.
90) Momar Sall, economic analyst
91) Coumba Touré, storyteller, author
92) Fatou Diouf, administrative manager
93) Ndeye Adama Seck, communicator
94) Aissata Bocar Seck, program coordinator
95) Mame Diarra Seck, monitoring and evaluation manager
96) Mademba AS, citizen
97) I don’t have Faye.
98) Dieynaba Famanta, Program Associate, feminist activist
99) Fatoumata Gueye, lawyer
100) Ndeye Marie Thiam, president of women’s platform for peace in Casamance.
