From physical violence to silent violence (By Matel BOCOUM) October 30, 2026
Despite the denunciations of all forms of violence, whoever the perpetrator, feminicides continue to claim victims in our country, in a context marked by the celebration of the “Pink October” campaign.
Throughout the month, advocacy, prevention and fight against cancer strategies were deployed, with the aim of alleviating the suffering of victims and their loved ones, allaying fears and inducing behavioral changes. But some men have darkened this month of hope. Their favorite game: kicking the anthill, as if to remind them that, in their imagination, “the woman is their property”. The femicides that occurred in October thus gave a macabre face to this month dedicated to raising awareness and the fight against female cancers. In a column published at the beginning of the week on her digital platform Mousso.sn, teacher-researcher Fatoumata Bernadette Sonko deplores the precariousness of the lives of women in our country. Entitled “Definitely, the lives of Senegalese women are nothing but vile”, his contribution denounces this wave of killings, but also the inaction of the competent authorities.
“You’re welcome. In indifference. Misogyny. Femicide continues to knock on every door. Within 24 hours. In the same country. Two women killed by two men. Mame Diarra Sow, a 24-year-old hairdresser, stabbed to death in Thiès, and Aminata Sy, a 17-year-old senior year student, found dead and tied up in a bag in Podor,” laments the teacher-researcher. In several localities, women continue to lose their lives in a context often marked by unequal social relations and male preeminence. But violence is not limited to physical attacks. Women also suffer psychological violence and silent suffering, sometimes trivialized or passed over in silence. Society closes its eyes and struggles to face certain realities. The month of Pink October also highlighted the plight of many women facing the disease.
Some breast cancer victims sometimes find themselves abandoned by their partner. Others see their lives turned upside down by cervical cancer, linked, in the vast majority of cases, to a persistent infection by the human papillomavirus (Hpv), which can be transmitted within the couple. Still others, in the hope of retaining their partner or rekindling their desire, resort to products presented as aphrodisiacs, at the risk of endangering their health. In Senegal, cervical cancer is among the main cancers affecting women and constitutes a major public health problem. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), almost all cases of cervical cancer are linked to persistent infection with high-risk types of human papillomavirus. HPV 16 and 18 are notably responsible for a significant proportion of these cancers.
This disease remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality among women. Men do not develop this type of cancer, but are nevertheless likely to contract HPV and transmit it to their partners during sexual intercourse or intimate contact. Women can thus contract and transmit this virus. In their plea, the doctors recall that the responsibility of men cannot be avoided in the fight against cervical cancer. They do not attribute responsibility for the transmission of HPV to them, since both partners can be infected, often without showing symptoms. It is rather a matter of emphasizing their role in prevention and protecting the health of their partners, of encouraging them to be more kind and responsible sexual behavior. From this perspective, vaccination should not only concern girls according to health specialists. They plead for the vaccination of men in order to prevent HPV infections and reduce its circulation in the population…
