On the occasion of the National Day against Violence against Women, September 19th, the BaBe association, in cooperation with the Commission for Gender Equality of the Vukovar-Srijem County, with the support of the City of Vukovar, organized charity football match between HNK Vukovar 1991 and HNK "Mitnica". Citizens of Vukovar gathered at the HNK Mitnica stadium and supported the fight against violence against women with their presence and donations.
The charity match ended with a 4-0 victory for HNK Vukovar '91, but ultimately the focus was not on the goals at all, but on raising awareness of the problem of violence against women and a broad call for everyone to get involved in its suppression and prevention, and violent behavior should be adequately sanctioned and severely condemned by the entire society.
"Although we have not marked this date in similar ways before, the message remains the same, which is that awareness of the existence of this issue must be spread and that as a social community as a whole we must condemn and prevent violence against women and domestic violence, and of course all other forms of violence. We would like to point out once again that violence against women, as well as domestic violence, is not only a problem for the victim, but also for their loved ones, their immediate and wider social community, because every victim is someone's daughter, mother, sister, neighbor, friend, colleague, employee, member of society to whom they need to contribute, which is made difficult or impossible for them due to the violence they experience, most often in the place where they should be safest and most protected, within their family," she explained. Ivana Sucic, head of the program Providing existential protection and psychosocial support to women victims of violence and their children in Vukovar-Srijem County.
As a reminder, since 2004, September 22nd has been the National Day for the Fight against Violence against Women in the Republic of Croatia, in memory of the three women murdered at the Zagreb Municipal Court on September 22nd, 1999, when, during a divorce case, Mato Oraškić killed judge Ljiljana Hvalec, his wife Gordana Oraškić and her lawyer Hajra Prohić, and wounded court reporter Stanka Cvetković. Oraškić was sentenced to a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.
Murders of women by intimate partners in Croatia account for 25 to 30 percent of all murders, every 15 minutes one woman is abused, and every third woman experiences economic violence in a partner relationship. Only one in 15 to 20 women reports rape. These are just some of the problems women face, and to which the BaBe association wanted to draw attention with this event.
