Femicide

Women. This word creates an image- an image of a mother, a sister, a daughter. Women are of the basics part of life, they are essential not only to society, but to the human species. Therefore, women should be treated with equal importance and given the same rights regardless of gender. Society has come a long way since 1920 and giving women the right to vote. However, there a parts of the world where women are treated unequally in respect of men and are fighting for that equality- a basic human right. Women especially in the developing world struggle with unjust inequalities. Common abuses that claim women are sex trafficking and forced prostitution; gender-based violence, including honor killings and mass rape; and maternal mortality. Reportage and storytelling of these horrible abuses are combined in the nonfiction book, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, where Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn argue that the oppression of women is the worst current global issue that calls for change.

There is a level of degree that the most violent types of crimes are more severe toward women. Solnit combines rape and violence, “We have an abundance of rape and violence against women in this country and on this earth though it’s almost never treated as a civil rights or even human rights issues.”

Throughout history, women have continuously found themselves as the subjects of oppression. Although the treatment of women has drastically changed over time, women are still exposed to much of the violence that exists today. Per the National Organization for Women, “young women, low-income women and some minorities are disproportionately victims of domestic violence and rape” (National Organization for Women, 2016). Women-centered violence is highly prevalent and reoccurring all over the world, even in our local communities. Individuals may be hesitant to consider just how much violence against women affects their communities.

Another negative effect of gender inequality is the increased fear of violence for women. Women are often portrayed as weak and helpless beings that can easily be taken advantage of. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon states that, “Violence against women and girls continues unabated in every continent, country and culture. It takes a devastating toll on women’s lives, on their families and on society as a whole. Most societies prohibit such violence –yet the reality is that too often, it is covered up or tacitly condoned” (Unite to End Violence Againist Women, 2006). Violence against women in the form of rape, spousal abuse, child abuse or spousal killing has become routine behavior over the years, so it rarely even makes the news anymore. “Women aged 15-44 are more at risk from rape and domestic violence than from cancer, motor accidents, war and malaria, according to World Bank data”( Unite to End Violence Againist Women, 2006). Women are often blamed and questioned about their actions if they become the

The future of genocidal intervention must allow us to move beyond a definition affixed to body counts, and particularly when we don’t gender those victims. By gendering the way violence impacts both men and women, we can both detect genocidal acts earlier as well as paying attention to the act of rape as genocidal in and of itself. While those who committed these acts certainly are evil, to understand the gendered logic (if it can be called such) of violence is conducted provides us better perspective in identifying it within conflicts, and understand which populations are at risk and in what ways.

These trends, however, do not account for the whole country because they differ from place to place. The case of Ciudad Juarez is particularly extreme and, sometimes, shocking. Ciudad Juarez is a city of 1.3 million people across from El Paso, Texas. Although Ciudad Juarez is incredibly rich in nature and culture, in the last couple of years, it has not been known because of these virtues; instead, it has been all over the news due to its homicide rates, which have had peak rates greater than many war zones. One particular aspect that characterizes the homicides of this city is the high level of “feminicidios” (femicides or feminicides in English) that have taken place in the last two decades. In fact, more than 300 women have been murdered

Figure 2. Violence Against Women in Pakistan in 2013. Adapted from “Life For All Pakistan: 3 Rapes in one week” William, X. P. (2014 April 29), by the Las Vegas

Giselle Portenier’s “Guatemala: Killer’s Paradise” is a documentary released in 2007 that focuses on the increasingly rising murder rate of women in Guatemala that largely go unsolved. This documentary illustrates the persistent gender expectations and perpetuate gendered violence since the Guatemalan Civil War as well as the lack of proper response from government institutions. Gender expectations and prejudices that arose out of the Guatemalan Civil War have developed a machoist, misogynistic society that is strife with physical and sexual violence toward women through which this societal violence has been entrenched through state inaction.

The thesis of the article written by Aashika Damodar is; “Gender-based violence both in the developed and developing world are a complex blend of structural and cultural challenges, many of which are enhanced and enabled by communicative technology.” One example that is made in favor of the thesis is the “Mensajes De Paz”. Which is film documentary on gender-based violence in Guatemala. Where over 6000 women have been killed in last ten years and only two percent were convicted.

Firstly, the explosion of urban areas has displayed socioeconomic glitches keen on upsurges of prostitution, sex-trafficking and drug-trafficking. Rapid population turns into high unemployment and homelessness, resulting in women commercial sex trade. In Brazil, 40,000 women have been murdered for simply being women. Honduras is the most dangerous place for women to reside as the murders of women have tripled without investigation from authority figures. Colombia, is confronting

In every country in Latin America and the Caribbean, women suffer acute discrimination. Often, the discrimination women face is related to social prejudices regarding appropriate patterns of conduct for men and women. This entrenched sex inequality provides the backdrop for the pervasive and widespread human rights violations women face in the region, with little chance of justice. The most pernicious types of women's human rights abuses in the Americas occur in the areas of women's reproductive and sexual health and rights, discrimination and violence against women in the workplace, and violence against women in the home. After decades of dictatorships in some countries, democracy has not meant an end to impunity for violations of women

Afro-Colombian women have described, violence and rape committed by illegal armed groups during the time of civil war in the country. According to statistics from The Ministry of Social Protection, 36% of internally displaced women have been forced to have sex with men they

Instead of addressing the structural causes of violence as inequality, discrimination or corruption of institutions, law enforcement, military and police, have themselves become perpetrators of this structural violence restricting freedoms inherent to democracy. And, this strategy has not had significant results in combating organized crime and, on the contrary, itself has generated an increase in human rights violations committed by the police and military and contributed to the breakdown of the social fabric with high costs in bodies and lives of women who see their rights being restricted while increasing femicide, femicide and other serious violence especially against women. The drug war in Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala has become a war against women. In many regions, it has led to a crisis of insecurity where no one is safe. Homicide rates in the region recorded the highest in the world; Ciudad Juarez, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila and Guerrero in Mexico and San Pedro Sula, Honduras today are places with more murders per capita in the world and rates of femicide and femicide have increased throughout the

Even though some areas of Latin America are underprivileged, women are empowering themselves at both the micro and macro levels. These women are utilizing their own will and desire to seek for change by changing policies and social systems to build a global response to violence against women. In an article titled “The Struggle for Women’s Equality in Latin America” the author, Donna Goodman, states Approximately one in three women in Latin America and the Caribbean has been a victim of sexual, physical, or psychological violence at the hands of intimate partners”. The issue of violence against women has always been a serious problem not just in Latin America but the rest of the world as well. “When countries are not experiencing active conflict,

Violence takes many forms: it can be physical, psychological, sexual, economic, and even within families, or combinations of one or more of these. In most cases, the violence has been “acceptable” because of the cultural traditions that are largely respected. However, with the increasing emergence of the women’s movement internationally and even within Mexico itself, many Mexican males regard their roles as belittled. There has been a subtle and sometimes obvious backlash against the women’s movement, especially if women have independent living or income possibilities. In a culture in which violence is the norm, beatings, rape, torture, mutilation, and even murder are frequently overlooked. This has been painfully evident in the cases of mass murders of young women in Ciudad Juarez.