A Bulgarian MP calls women "whores" in a debate on gender violence

Bulgarian MP Vezhdi Rashidov resigned today from his position as chairman of Parliament's Culture Committee after calling women “whores” during an urgently called parliamentary debate to increase penalties for sexist assaults.

“All the whores woke up to remember after 15 years that they were raped, like that American director who was driven crazy like that,” Rashidov said during a break in the session without realizing his microphone was open, in an apparent reference to Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood producer whose sexual abuse sparked the Me Too protest movement, and who was convicted in the US. UU. to 36 years in prison.

Rashidov is the oldest deputy in Parliament, was Minister of Culture twice, (2009-2013 and 2014-2017), has been elected deputy seven times and is a well-known sculptor. His party, the populist GERB, demanded that he apologize and resign as chairman of the Culture Commission, although Rashidov will continue to hold his seat.

The recent case that opened the debate

The Bulgarian Parliament today interrupted its summer break to urgently debate changes to the Penal Code after a man accused of brutally assaulting his ex-girlfriend was released after the judge considered that the victim's life was not in danger and that injuries were minor.

The attacker caused his 18-year-old victim 21 deep cuts with a scalpel to her breasts and other parts of her body, as well as fractures to her nose and jaw, in an attack that left her with a concussion and bruises.

His release sparked strong protests in Sofia and other Bulgarian cities last Monday, uncovering a crisis of sexist violence in the poorest country in the European Union (EU), one of the six of this group that has not yet ratified the Convention of Istanbul, an international treaty against violence against women and girls.

Sexist violence, in figures

According to a document from the Bulgarian Ministry of Social Policy, not yet published and to which EFE had access, in 2022 there were 736 identified cases of domestic violence.. A vast majority of these cases -542- were assaults against children, while the victims were women 188 times, 10 were people with disabilities and 6 were adult men.

However, it is estimated that the figures are much higher, as Bulgaria lacks official statistics on the number of complaints filed for sexist or domestic violence.