Women in Brazil are on the march. That’s true in a literal sense, as women put boots-on-the-ground today in Brasília for the annual national Black Women’s March, and in recent weeks in protests against a proposed law to restrict abortions in cases of rape. It’s also true in the sense that women’s issues, stories and opinions have seized a powerful spotlight in public conversation this month.
Although the issues under discussion are not new, the volume of the conversations and the dynamism of the activism are rising. This compilation of stories aims to show why it’s a difficult but exciting moment for women in Brazil.
Mapping violence against women
Data from 2014 suggests 10% of Brazilians believe the question of violence against women receives more attention than it deserves. But a new study entitled “Violence Map 2015: Homicides against Women in Brazil” offers evidence to suggest violence against women is in desperate need of solutions. Urgently. Presented in Brasília on November 9, the study compiles national, state, and city-level data on female deaths in Brazil from 1980 to 2013. Following the Maria da Penha domestic violence law in 2006, the number of “femicides” fell from 4.2 deaths per 100,000 people to 3.9 in 2007, but then rose to 4.8 deaths in 2013. These numbers make Brazil the fifth most lethal country for women out of 83 nations studied by the World Health Organization. The results show that 50.3% of the 4,762 registered homicides against women in 2013 were committed by relatives, making domestic or family violence the most common form of lethal violence against Brazilian women.
Overall, the annual number of femicides grew 22% between 2003 and 2013, but this statistic hides racial discrepancies. In the same time period, homicides against white women fell by about 10%, but homicides against black women grew more than 54%. Young women are also more vulnerable than average. 18 year-olds had the highest incidence of homicides, while 18 to 30 year-olds accounted for 39% of all femicides.
Mothers and police violence
The 2012 version of the same Violence Map project pointed to falling homicide rates for white youths and rising homicide rates for black youths from 2002 to 2010. Mothers of black youths killed have been growing in visibility, particularly those who have lost their children to police violence. This week, Terezinha de Jesus and Ana Paula Oliveira, mothers who lost their sons to police violence in Alemão and Manguinhos respectively, are traveling around Europe with Amnesty International to speak about their losses and Brazil’s security crisis. Terezinha’s story has received some recent international media attention since police concluded the officers who killed her son in April were acting in “legitimate self-defense.”
Black women speak out
Violence against black women and their families will be a key issue in today’s nationwide Black Women’s March. Organizers are expecting thousands of protesters to take part in Brasília on behalf of the 54.9 million Brazilian women who identify as black or mixed-race. A call-to-action video explains women will march for equal salaries, for respect for the social role of black women, against racism, against violence, and for their well-being. In an article titled, “Why black women march,” Columnist Flávia Oliveira points out that in addition to high homicide rates, black women suffer more fatalities related to pregnancy complications and lower average salaries: 60% of white women’s average salary, 75% of black men’s, and 40% of white men’s.
The issues facing Brazil’s black women are intensified in the favelas. In an article titled, “The woman of the favela’s cry for help,” Complexo da Maré journalist Gizele Martins explains that the average woman in a favela lives “day to day,” because “it’s her house that has been removed in this marvelous city for more than 100 years, and her child who, for a century, has been assassinated due to the criminalization of poverty.” While their culture, identities, way of speaking and dressing, and even their role in childbearing are deva