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Guatemala + Mexico - Femicide of Women & Girls:
Mothers Play Crucial Role in Fight for Justice
by Lien De Coster - June 18, 2010
Entering
the courtyard I immediately find it difficult to breathe. There is an energy
loaded with such strong emotions it seems impossible not to be affected. The
courtyard is packed with people, mostly women dressed in black. I am glad to
see one of my colleagues; and with some effort, I go and sit next to her.
• Photo
taken during visit to Sobrevivientes,
This is not just another November afternoon in
A young girl, Ana Virginia Nuyens Cardenas, tells the story of the brutal assassination of her mother who was shot twenty-three times. The murderer explained in court that he shot her so many times to make sure her suffering would not last too long. He got a reduced sentence for it. While the girl’s voice is breaking, I feel tears dropping down my face.
When the testimonies are finally over, I realize I should talk to people, do some interviews, and collect more material for the article. Instead I find myself staring at the pink crosses in the corridor. Each cross stands for a woman who died. Each has the name and age of the victim and is ‘dressed’ with her clothes. When I come to three small crosses placed closely together belonging to Diana, Wendy, and Geidi, aged seven, eight, and twelve I start to feel sick.
• Woman and young girl in
The following day I stay in bed, missing International Day for the
Elimination of Violence against Women. I wonder how the women of
Back in the
The description of the dangerous atmosphere in Ciudad Juárez
reminds me of
During the reading the importance of strengthening the
constitutional state and ending a culture of impunity is stressed. It is agreed
that more pressure from abroad could be of help. Professor Wil Pansters of the
Department of Cultural Anthropology at
Several factors influence the extreme sexist violence in Ciudad
Juárez. This border town across the
Another factor that facilitates the extreme sexist violence of
Juárez, namely the role of machismo, is skipped over too easily the night of
the reading. Perhaps the fear of explaining violence from a cultural
perspective seems to be so big that it is impossible to acknowledge. But it is
a fact that the societal situation in Juárez is putting pressure on traditional
gender roles. A lot of women working in Juárez reach a certain level of
autonomy and are economically independent from men. On top of this, traveling
to and from work, they systematically penetrate public space, even at night. In
this way they don’t conform to the sociocultural gender codes of their society.
This behavior sets off a reaction from macho men who don’t want to lose their
power. Combined with the exceptional economic, political, and judicial
situation in town this response too often manifests in its worst form;
femicide.
Is there no hope for the women of Juárez? There is and there must
be. The evening of the reading in the
In March Ciudad Juárez became an important item on
Together they form a movement that, according to Professor
Pansters, demands moral and political accountability from the President. “The
grassroots movement that has grown the last months in Juárez can make people in
power helpless. The mothers represent the human side of violence.” In the most
optimistic scenario this might influence the Governor’s elections later this
year, Pansters believes. “There is a chance…this could be a turning point.”
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