Manneken-Pis was dressed in a new outfit on Sunday morning for Violence against women day.
A banner with the slogan “Say No to Violence” was attached to the fence in front of the fountain. The outfit is made of an orange silky material, which is quite feminine and plays on transparency. It includes a jacket, trousers, shoes and a circle around his head, a symbol of unity. Manneken-Pis also has orange lipstick to go with the outfit.
Belgian creator Gioia Seghers made the outfit. She tried to mix masculine and feminine identities in a spirit of unity. By dressing the “ketje de Bruxelles” in this outfit, she is expressing her hope in the education of new generations.
The outfit, in the colour of the United Nations campaign “Orange the World - #HearMeToo”, was presented to Manneken-Pis on Saturday at Brussels Town Hall. It was gifted by the United Nations agency for Women’s rights and the European Women’s Lobby.
During the presentation, Isabelle Kempeneers, Vice-President of the French-Speaking Women of Belgium’s Council, said that 33 women had been killed in Belgium since the beginning of the year. That’s proportionally eight times more than in France, where eight rapes are reported every day and one in eight couples is faced with psychological violence. She added that organisers in the field say 80% of the Istanbul convention’s recommendations have not been implicated, or not implicated properly, by Belgian authorities.
The Brussels Times
