Most regions of Mexico are expected to witness a relative calm on the ninth of this month, as millions of women and girls intend to withdraw from public life on this day, in protest against the violence they are exposed to everywhere in the country. This protest comes under the #day tag without us. It is the 24-hour withdrawal of women and girls from schools and workplaces, the suspension of their presence in shops and public transport, and even the use of the Internet. This protest finds support from the government and many businesses. In a statement, the Mexico Business Coordination Council urged companies to allow workers to stay at home, in the hope that this activity would support solutions to the problem.
Mexico witnesses many incidents of violence against women. On February 9, 2020, days before Valentine's Day, Ingrid Escamela, 25, was killed by her partner. Days after that, seven-year-old Fatima Aldrigot Anton was tortured and killed, which sparked outrage, and thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to protest against these killings. Outside the Presidential Palace in Mexico, protesters called for concrete government action against an "epidemic" of female killing in the country.
A common phenomenon
The death of Ingrid and Fatima are just two examples of a very common phenomenon in this country. Every day in Mexico, at least 10 women are killed on the basis of gender. Investigations succeed in uncovering less than 5% of these crimes, while the remainder are unclear.
Calls to work are increasing day by day; the protests call attention to the failure of the Mexican government to develop any plan to prevent female killing, as well as the wrong behavior of the media in covering these incidents, as it provides ample space for the testimony of the aggressor, and insufficient respect for the victim’s life and body.
Mexico has a discriminatory behavior when considering the killing of women. Another 17 Latin American countries followed a similar behavior, while these crimes should result in heavy penalties. Last month, the Mexican government discussed removing this distinction from the penal code, although the attorney general reported a 137% increase in female homicides in the country over the past five years, four times more than other murders. Facing a response to comments that blame women’s murder for corruption and economic policies, Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador ultimately acknowledged that he did not agree with the proposed amendments to the penal code relating to the killing of women, and those amendments were not implemented.
Female murders are not only common in Mexico, but they are spread throughout the region. Global data is difficult to collect due to differences in reporting and data standards. However, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime collected data for 2018, on women who were killed by a partner or a family member, and data revealed that African women are killed at a rate of 3.1 per 100,000 women, and the Americans rank second in the killing of women At a rate of 1.6 per 100,000 women. According to a 2016 report, 14 of the 25 Latin American countries have the highest female murder rates. In November 2019, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean announced that it was working on a system to record femicide, which includes Latin America and the Caribbean, and that this system could standardize future data.
Although their rates vary widely, El Salvador (femicide rates ranged between 6.1 and 13.9 per 100,000 women), and Honduras (between 5.1 and 32.7 per 100,000 women) are among the top five countries in the world from Where women kill rates. In war or other conflict areas, as in the countries of the Northern Triangle, it is difficult to determine the number of murders of women or victims of conflict. Brazil has the largest number of female violence victims annually (more than 1,200 murders in 2018, which makes the rate reach 1.1 per 100,000 women), but it is often excluded from analyzing data because its registration and storage system for killing women is among the worst In the world. Colombia has seen an increase in the number of murders of women over the past two years, with one woman being murdered every other day. Argentina was the third largest country in the number of women killed in 2018 (255 women), or at a rate of 1.1 per 100,000 women.
Chile is experiencing a decrease in female murder rates, compared to other countries with 45 female murders in 2019. Last year, women's protests against violence occupied the headlines, after the chant of "usurping your way" as the chanting indicated the government's complicity - specifically the judicial system - in Such persistent crimes are due to the government's failure to act against the perpetrators and against this "epidemic" as a whole. This is a common feeling, as evidenced by the widespread use of chant in Latin America and even in Europe.
Colombia has seen an increase in the number of murders of women over the past two years, with one woman being murdered every other day.
The protests arouse attention to the Mexican government's failure to develop any plan to prevent female killing, as well as the wrong behavior of the media in covering these incidents, as it provides ample space for the testimony of the aggressor, and insufficient respect for the life and body of the victim.
America's doors are closed to immigrant women
Violence against women is a major factor in forcing women and girls to migrate from the three northern triangle countries: Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and the search for safe havens in the United States. A 2017 study by Washington University on immigration from these countries revealed that the increase in violence between 2011 and 2016 coincided with almost twice the increase in immigrants to America.
With the tragedy that women endure in these countries, American officials place obstacles in the way of immigrants. In late 2018, US President Donald Trump described the convoy of Central Americans heading north through Mexico to reach America as an “invasion” by “members” Gangs, and some very bad people. ” David Ward, the former Immigration and Customs Administration official, claimed that the group carries with it smallpox, leprosy and tuberculosis. But the truth is that these migrants came because of fear.
Earlier this summer, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against then US Attorney General Jeff Sessions for illegally raising the threshold of fear for immigrants, and for ignoring that there was a direct relationship between gender-based violence and forced migration.
A mother demanding justice for her daughter in vain
In 2016, the girl, Maria de Jesus, James Zamudio, was killed after someone threw it from a window on the fifth floor of a building in Mexico City. Marishoy, as her friends and family called her, was 19 years old and was studying at university to become an engineer. Since then, her mother, Yusnia Zamudio, has not stopped demanding justice for her child. "I have every right to burn and break everything I encounter," Zamudio says in a video clip. "I will not ask anyone for permission, because I do so in revenge for my daughter." The video was republished several times on the Twitter and Facebook pages, between 18 and 21 February, and spread over 1.2 million times. Zamudio goes on her social media message, saying: “Before they killed my daughter, they killed many others. What can we all do? Sitting at home, crying and working on a sewing machine? No more than that, gentlemen, it is over, we will break the silence now ». Zamudio's voice and her four-year struggle for her daughter Mareschwi continued, against continued impunity and lack of justice.
Prosecutors in Mexico City classified the girl’s death as a murder, and it was not reclassified until September last year as a woman’s murder. However, no one was arrested for her murder.