Saint-Gilles to host new monument to murdered Belgian women

A third monument has been inaugurated in Belgium to commemorate Belgian femicide victims, listing the women’s names, the date they were murdered and where they lived.

In 2021, the first monument was unveiled in Tournai with the names of 100 victims. A second monument, needed to list other murdered women, followed two years later in Quaregnon, near Mons.

The saw-tooth shape of this third stone, placed on Place Marie Janson, Saint-Gilles, makes it look like part of it is missing.

“This is done deliberately,” said Tournai writer Céline Delbecq, the woman behind the project. “The information about the women comes from the blog ‘Stop Femicide’, which keeps a list of victims from the press and from the public prosecutor’s offices.”

The concept of "femicide" was only officially defined in Belgian law last October 2024, and as yet, there is no official total. “Moreover, not all victims are covered in the media. The unfinished form of the monument indicates that the list is incomplete,” Delbecq added.

The idea for the monuments came about during the coronavirus pandemic, when a performance by Delbecq produced by the Compagnie de la Bête Noire theatre group was cancelled because theatres had to close.

That performance, ‘Cinglée’ [mad], about a resistance fighter who slowly goes mad because the world around her refuses to see, acknowledge and act against the problems she highlights, ended with the unveiling of a monument to 100 women who were murdered in Belgium.

Sadly the opportunity to see this moving statue permanently has had to be delayed. “Unfortunately, getting planning permission took longer than we had imagined, and so the stone had to be sent back to storage just after the inauguration,” the Compagnie de la Bête Noire said on its website.

“We are working hard with Saint-Gilles commune to ensure that it returns and is fixed in place as soon as possible. We will be organising a collective tribute around the monument when it is finally fixed in place.”