Greek elections: “Wonderful Women”‘s founder Nefeli Hatziioannidou on New Democracy ticket

A… wonderful woman, Nefeli Hatziioannidou, is one of the surprises that Kyriakos Mitsotakis has in store for the New Democracy State ballot.

The name of Maria – Nefeli had not been leaked until yesterday as New Democracy kept completely under wraps in order to cause a positive stir.

And the truth is that this is a choice that is considered positive for the ruling party as she is a woman with great social activity, especially concerning women’s rights. And this is exactly what Kyriakos Mitsotakis wants to highlight in a period where the negative news is full of rapes, abuses, violations of women’s rights, etc.

Maria – Nefeli Chatziioannidou has founded the online platform “Wonderful Women” in 2019.

It started as a women’s interaction platform in Greece and today it is an urban non-profit enterprise whose goal is to empower women through actions that have a positive impact on their lives and society. “Wonderful Women” based on the gender equality index of the European Institute for Gender Equality, and taking into account the complexity of gender equality, focuses its value proposition for women in eight key areas, Work, Money, Knowledge & Skills, Time, Power, Health and two peripheral areas, Inequalities and Violence.

The eight areas above cover the needs of the Greek public for information, participation and creation of actions that are not sufficiently covered by the existing public structures, as they often require a focus on very specific issues or population groups. The general nature of Wonder Women’s activities, the eight different areas it focuses on, and the diversity of the organization’s large membership base are a comparative advantage and unique characteristics of the organization that not only differentiate Wonder Women but provide a comparative advantage in the market and Contact.

As stated on its website, “the new platform of “Wonderful Women”, which you are on right now, is a safe online place to meet, exchange information and opinions on issues that concern us all! On this platform you can be yourself, you can ask anything you want, talk about anything that concerns you and offer what you can. In this community we do NOT know everything, we DO NOT judge anyone, we DO NOT insult anyone’s diversity, we are NOT perfect! But we try to be the best version of ourselves! That’s why we make mistakes, apologize, talk about what’s bothering us and be honest. If you feel that you fit into our group, don’t hesitate to become a member!”

The “Wonderful Women” org proceeds with a series of actions and events in order to strengthen women, pass the messages they want, highlight a series of problems. It has a very active social media presence with thousands of followers and encourages reporting.

Two years ago, on the occasion of Metoo, Maria Nefeli spoke to Mega channel emphasizing:

“Although Wonderful Women wasn’t created now, we’ve gained a big place in everything that’s been going on, and most of them have joined our community now. The project started in 2019, as a platform where every woman could declare her admiration for another woman, either by name or anonymously. They were essentially dedications” explained Mrs. Hatziioannidou.

“Then we started commenting on current affairs through Instagram mainly, and so we evolved into a more informative medium than when we started. We offered our platform so that those people who do not have the opportunity to access media focus, can come in and tell their story. We are a forum where every woman can write a question or tell her story and start a dialogue. We are an information platform, and we give advice to some women if they need help,” she continued.

“I manage everything. I’ve been working on women’s empowerment since 2013. I joined five other women by chance in a social enterprise aimed at empowering women in tech industries, and that’s how I started looking into things more. After the first social enterprise, I decided to study the issue and got a master’s degree, and that’s how I ended up starting this project in 2019” said Ms. Chatziioannidou.

“Many complaints that have come to me have shocked me. Most of the complaints we receive anonymously or by name are related to pedophilia. Many cannot file a complaint, because the time frame does not cover them. Most people just want to share their story,” she continued.

“The pandemic is disproportionately affecting women. The person who stays at home in this situation is usually the woman. There are many issues that concern modern Greek women. Incidents of abuse of women increased during the pandemic,” Ms. Chatziioannidou also said.

Maria – Nefeli Chatziioannidou innovator par excellence

Maria – Nefeli Chatziioannidou is an economist and deals with social entrepreneurship. Her first degree is in Economics from Bocconi University and her Masters in Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation. She founded her first social enterprise “Code it Like a Girl” in 2013, and is the founder of the non-profit organization, “WONDERFUL WOMEN”. She provides consulting services to organizations and start-ups in Greece and is a mentor in international and Greek entrepreneurship programs, such as the Prince Trust Foundation International, Women on Top and Womentors of the Lambrakis Foundation. In 2016, she was selected to participate in the European program “WOMEN INNOVATORS IN SOCIAL ENTERPRISES” (WISE), in which she was awarded as one of the 5 Top Social Innovators of the program. In March 2020, “Wonderful Women” became members of the French Women’s Mediterranean Fund and in October Nefeli became one of the ten social entrepreneurs in Europe of the Women Act Europe program. In March, the book to which she contributed “I’m Dangerous” was released by Keybook publications, a project of Women On Top, WomenAct and A8inea. It was included in the Euclid Network list of the EU. Included in the TOP 100 Women in Social Enterprises 2021, she became the winner of the GREEK INTERNATIONAL WOMEN AWARD in the category Social Responsibility 2021 and the UK ALUMNI AWARDS 2022 for Social Action. She is 30 years old, has two daughters.

In her article in TA NEA newspaper she had written:

Let’s be clear: The reason we’re crying out is not because we have nothing better to do, but because once the victim of a violent act decides to report it, apart from the primary violence of the criminal act itself, it starts to count. conversely the time for the “second wave of trauma”, i.e. the secondary victimization he will suffer due to the negative reactions of his surroundings. Among these negative reactions, the most destructive is the tendency to blame the victims themselves for their assault. Our role, then, is to counteract and compensate for this secondary violence.

“Victim blaming”, as it is called, is the tendency to consider the victim of a crime or a criminal act partially or fully responsible for the act that was perpetrated against them. We usually see this phenomenon through questions and comments, such as “what was she doing so late alone?”, “was she provocatively dressed?”, “she was walking around” and many other phrases that will be heard in everyday conversations, in various comments under posts of such news, even in the mass media, and occur mostly when the victims are women.

The recent incident of the 24-year-old woman from Thessaloniki, who reported her gang-rape to authorities, is a representative example of “victim blaming” and the often incorrect way of dealing with the media and society, who were quick to comment and blame the victim for his choices of entertainment, for the trust he showed his abusers, for the place where the rape happened, even for his age.

Obviously not all people who adopt this way of thinking have bad intentions. They confuse how something bad statistically likely is to happen and attribute that probability, high or low, to the intent of the victim. This distracts from the larger issue, which is the violence itself in the first place and essentially through a false rationalization they eventually “whitewash” the perpetrator, leaving in society’s mind that what happened was perhaps to be expected.

“Victim blaming” can therefore have tragic consequences for the psyche of the person who has suffered a painful violent experience, but it also indirectly promotes the culture of rape itself, as victims are held responsible for someone else’s criminal acts, thus creating a vicious circle, in which fewer incidents of violence are reported to authorities, fewer perpetrators are convicted of the crimes they commit, thus perpetuating a culture of rape where future perpetrators will continue to feel “invincible”.

It is, therefore, important to always shout that about the crimes that are being committed only the criminals are to blame, no “buts”, no comments that blame the victim, no questions that hide chronic pathologies and anachronistic perceptions. Only in this way will we be able to protect the victims and we will all help together as a society to eliminate the phenomena of violence, which unfortunately are increasing constantly.