Queen Máxima & Crown Princess Mary at World Conference of Women's Shelters: Nov 2015

[polyesco]

thanks for all the links.
Yes busy week for them both.

a great speech by Mary

[Roskilde]

As chairman of the Mary Foundation Crown Princess Mary during her recent visit to a shelter for battered women met some of the residents who gave her their tough stories - behind closed doors.

TV2 News caught afterwards Crown Princess Mary to a talk after visiting the woman crisis center.

- Where do you do of these tough stories - inside yourself?

- That's a good question. I see it always as an enormous privilege that they will share their stories with me. I see them as immensely brave women who are willing to tell some of the most intimate experiences, and it touches me deeply, but it also strengthens me in my conviction about the work I'm doing, told Crown Princess Mary.

Listen to the entire TV2 interview with The Crown Princess here. The article has translated part of the interview:

Kronprinsesse Mary: Kvinder skal ikke kæmpe kampen alene | Underholdning

[Muhler]

Summary of article in Billed Bladet #46, 2015.
Written by Marianne Singer.

The press coverage was massive when Queen Maxima and Mary arrived for the Global Network of Women's Shelters conference. Not least because this was the first appearance of Queen Maxima (QM) after she had to return from the official visit to China due to illness.
QM said to the press: Thank you very much for the many well wishes, it warms my heart. I'm a lot better, but I still need to find my strength. But I'm a lot better.

Indeed QM and Mary where scheduled to visit a women's shelter together in Leiden, but QM had to cancel due to her illness, so Mary was on her own.
Here she visited the shelter, Rosa Manus = pink hands.
The shelter is part of a Dutch concept of much more open shelters that are directly involved in the local community, rather than typical women's shelters that are more or less hidden away resembling forts. The involvement in the local community is considered beneficial for victims of abuse often combined with a therapeutic programme with the husband/partner of the woman who has been abused.
Mary was received with great warmth by the residents and she had a chat with four women of different nationality (*) about their personal issues. That was an emotional experience for both the women as well as Mary.

Mary was also shown around and she spoke with a number of experts in such crisis centers who told her about the experiences that has been made with Mary asking many questions.

Afterwards Mary said: "I'm always moved by stories the women tell. I see it as a huge privilege that they will share their story with me, because it's so intimate and personal. I find it enormously courageous that they stand up and help break the silence about violence. because that has to be broken".

Mary also met the former Miss World, Linor Arbargil, who champions against sexual abuse. She is a victim of rape herself. Shortly before she was crowned Miss World actually. And since then she has used that platform to fight sexual abuse.
After having seen part of a documentary about Linor Arbargil's story and heard a speech by her, Mary met Linor Arbargil and said afterwards: "She's an enormously warm person with a great personality. She's very inspiring and willing to use her own story to ensure her message gets out in the world.
She can help getting other women to follow her example and break the silence there is in regards to abuse/violence. We need as many different forces to take part in this as possible and to fight violence overall".

I have omitted the parts where Mary is together with QM, because that I see has already been well covered here.

(*) I see that the Netherlands share a problem with Denmark. That the majority of women who now seek shelter are immigrants.

[fortimo]

Was held this speech of Queen Maxima on this event?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX0eD5VBH5Y