WRDA Statement on Misogynistic Graffiti in South Belfast

Following the visit of a number of members of the French far right to Belfast for 12th July celebrations, vile and misogynistic graffiti was found on walls in the South Belfast area. It used insulting and victim blaming language about Gisele Pelicot, who survived rape by dozens of men across several years, and called for the release of her husband, who orchestrated the drugging and abuse of his wife.

This would be disturbing and worthy of condemnation regardless of who was responsible, but considering the role of the far right, it is particularly concerning. In 2025, WRDA produced a guide on Challenging the Far Right Weaponisation of VAWG, highlighting the harm caused when the far right claim to be acting to protect women and girls. At that time, we emphasised that the far right are not truly protecting women. The graffiti that we have seen this week goes further and in doing so it exposes how the far right really feel about women and our rights.

From the beginning of the growth of the far right a century ago, women have been perceived and framed in public-facing propaganda as a vital part of the project, but never as leaders or even as independent actors. We have instead been framed as vehicles for producing white babies, as assets to control and to use as needed, as homemakers and child-raisers under the leadership of a man. By this understanding, Gisele Pelicot committed the sin of turning against her husband and not obeying.

We utterly reject this framing in every way, and it is important that the graffiti is understood as misogynistic hate. It has now been removed, but more needs to be done – both to understand what we saw this week and to ensure that misogyny is included in forthcoming reforms to the Sentencing Bill. WRDA will continue to campaign for this and will present evidence to the Justice Committee in September. We encourage members of the public to contact their elected representatives to take misogynistic hate seriously.