The Slut Walk 2025
The Drusluganga, the Slutwalk, is a movement that opposes the reversal of perpetrator-victim roles among victims of sexual violence and provides a platform for the victims.
The aim of the “Slut March” is to avoid shifting the responsibility for sexual crimes from the perpetrators to the victims and to make it clear to people that the victim’s clothing or behavior cannot and must not be a possible excuse for the crime.
 |
| Source: Profile picture of the page Drusluganga on Facebook |
The movement dates back to a sexual violence prevention event at a university in Toronto, Canada, in January 2011, where a police officer said that women should avoid dressing like sluts to avoid becoming victims.
The Toronto police spokeswoman later stated that the statement was in complete contradiction to everything police officers are taught, and the officer himself apologized for his remark, calling it "ill-conceived."
However, the basic idea that women only have themselves to blame if they dress too provocatively is still widespread worldwide. Women still hear after a rape that it's their own fault because they wore a skirt that was too short, a neckline that was too low, or whatever, or behaved too "provocatively," or drank too much alcohol. The fact that a woman wearing a short skirt doesn't want to be harassed or raped has apparently not yet spread everywhere – and that's precisely what these "slut marches" are about: It's the perpetrators who are responsible for sexual violence, not the victims.
The first Slutwalk took place in Toronto at the beginning of April 2011, the first German Slut March was in Passau, Lower Bavaria, in July 2011, and the first Germany-wide Slut Marches in major cities such as Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, and Hamburg followed in August 2011.
The first Drusluganga in Reykjavík took place on July 23rd, 2011. Since then, it has been held annually here (except in 2020 due to COVID-19). The parade starts at Hallgrímskirkja and proceeds via Skólavörðustígur and Laugarvegur. The march culminates with a large stage in front of the Parliament on Austurvöllur, featuring music and speeches. Well-known musicians supporting the Drusluganga also perform there, including Friðrik Dór and, this year, Páll Óskar.
 |
| Sound rehearsal in front of the Drusluganga |
Mætum og styðjum þolendur kynferðisofbeldis
The motto of the Drusluganga is "Let's meet and support victims of sexual violence".
On Saturday, July 26th, 2025, at 2 p.m., the church bells of Hallgrímskirkja rang, followed by the police motorcycles, and then the Drusluganga 2025 started.
This year, Drusluganga was dedicated to the memory of Ólöf Tara Harðardóttir and all those who did not survive the violence they experienced.
Who was Ólöf Tara?
Ólöf Tara was born on March 9th, 1990, and grew up in Hafnarfjörður and Grafarvogur. As a teenager, she was a victim of domestic violence in a relationship, and later lived with violence from her partner for years. Only after a serious illness was she able to escape the relationship in 2018.
The self-employed fitness instructor and personal trainer for women became an activist and, among other things, co-founded Öfgar (= "Extreme") and Vitund (= "Awareness"), a non-profit organization against gender-based violence and for change in this area, both in the legal system and in social awareness. She was also one of the faces of the Icelandic #metoo movement. With Öfgar, Ólöf Tara received numerous awards for her work, including from the Mannréttindaskrifstofa Íslands, the Icelandic Human Rights Center.
In the end, her strength was exhausted, and Ólöf Tara was found dead in her apartment on January 30th, 2025, at the age of 34.
Her funeral took place on February 10 in Grafarvogur Church. The ceremony was presided over by Guðrún Karls Helgudóttir, the parish priest and Bishop of Iceland. Also present at the funeral were Kristrún Frostadóttir, the Icelandic Prime Minister, Þórunn Sveinbjarnardóttir, the current Speaker of the Icelandic Parliament, and Icelandic President Halla Tómasdóttir.
This year, the proceeds from the sale of all Drusluganga merchandise will go to the Minningarsjóður Ólafar Töru, the memorial fund for Ólöf Tara.
One in four women in Iceland is a victim of sexual violence, or one in four. That's the statistics. In reality, the number is likely higher, because not every woman chooses to report it.
Ólöf Tara's work was also particularly concerned with looking beyond these mere statistics – one in four women is more than just a number, a figure; it's about the person behind it. Ultimately, it's also about the statistics of women who have not survived the consequences of the violence they experienced – sexual assault or rape represent risk factors for later suicide – as in Ólöf Tara's case.
Accompanied loudly by a megaphone, the march began with the cry "Ég er drusla! Ég er drusla!" "I'm a slut!"
The march led down the Skólavörðustígur, over the Laugarvegur and finally ended at Austurvöllur.
However, we were no longer present at the closing ceremony there.
No comments:
Post a Comment