Graffiti in Mexico City with the words 'No More Femicide'. Source: Wikimedia Commons. All Rights Reserved.
It is beyond comprehension that Mexico is not included
in the rankings of the world states which do not provide equity, development
and security to its female population and in which women find themselves in a disadvantaged
situation of vulnerability.
This is indeed a baffling omission since in Mexico,
the equity gap in these spheres is still significant and, above all, because
the level of gender violence there is overwhelming. Unequal levels of literacy
between men and women, dissimilar access to the labor market, sexual harassment
and other alarming aspects such as female genital mutilation, child marriage, human
trafficking and other expressions of gender violence are some of the factors
that are taken into account for including a country in these rankings.
India, for example, is included primarily because of
the issue of female infanticide and rape. In India, to counteract infanticide,
it is forbidden to carry out tests to determine the sex of a baby during
pregnancy.
This is so, because giving birth to a boy is traditionally more
highly valued than giving birth to a girl – so much so, that when a boy is born
celebrations go on for ten days, but if a girl is born there is no celebration
whatsoever. Within certain social sectors, linked to the convention of a dowry,
women are considered an economic burden. All of this results in a situation where
the female population has been reduced.
In addition to this, the city of New Delhi has been dubbed
Rape Capital due to the high levels of this particular crime in recent years.
In 2012 the media and society’s attention was caught by an episode of gang rape
on a city bus, the victim a young woman who was travelling with her companion.
This gave rise to numerous protests demanding an end to these types of aggressions
– for which, in many cases, the aggressors do not show any repentance because
they say that since a woman should not be away from home at night, if she is raped,
it is more her responsibility than that of the rapist.
Impunity, corruption, domestic violence, lack of equality education: these are some of the factors determining the wave of aggression against women that are dragging the country down.
Mukesh Singh, one of the
aggressors who was interviewed by the BBC, explained that the fact that the
girl resisted her rape also made her responsible for the beating she received –
the girl, according to him, should have accepted the rape without resistance, and
so they would not have beaten her until she died an "accidental"
death.
While this is clearly a warning of the risks women face in this far-away
country, geographical distance is simply non-existent between the minds of an
extensive male sector of the population in different regions of the world. In
many cases, the aggressors’ ideas resonate with opinions of different social
sectors that hold women responsible when they are targeted.
In Mexico, the spectrum of gender violence is broad,
but its plainest form is femicide, which has become an entrenched reality which
transcends authorities and civil society. Impunity, corruption, domestic violence,
lack of equality education: these are some of the factors determining the wave
of aggression against women that are dragging the country down.
The current scenario is nothing less than the normalization of violence,
particularly that of a major aggression: femicide. Although this is the most
exacerbated form of violence against women, attitudes towards this sector of
the population reveal a wide range of expressions, from subtle to conspicuous,
which contribute to undermining the female figure, and detracting her value as
a person and a human being.
In the domestic sphere, for example, unequal access
to education for daughters and sons pervades in some social contexts, and even
a differentiated treatment resulting in the subordination of daughters and
sisters. Additionally, in many Mexican homes, girls are sexually abused by
family members and acquaintances. These abuses usually go unreported because
they are painful and embarrassing for the family and even more so for the girls
who suffer them – not for those who commit them. As they are tolerated, this type
of violence becomes invisible.
Misogynist attitudes are to be found not only in
conservative or low literacy circles. Negative behavior towards women in
supposedly progressive sectors takes the form of questioning their intellectual
capacity or of harassment in academic milieus and workplaces. This comes to
show that machismo and gender based violence is a problem permeating all social
spheres, even though in some social sectors they manifest themselves in starker
ways.
In this sense, the connection between poverty/social marginalization and
gender violence has been studied in some detail. In the case of India, it has
been found that conditions of economic precariousness favor a climate of
domestic violence. This becomes more evident if one takes into account that poverty
can be considered economic violence in itself.
These conditions, which are
commonly found within every society, do not undermine the aggressors’
responsibility, but they define the environments which are more conducive to
the reproduction of male violence.
Likewise, this does not imply that
perpetrators of gender based violence exist only in deprived social sectors,
but rather that poverty and marginalization are factors influencing the
incidence of gender aggression, for they trigger processes of social
decomposition through resentment and feelings of deprivation that generate
outbursts which hurt the most vulnerable sectors of the population, namely
women and children.
So, tackling the underlying problem involves thinking about the economic
and social paradigm as an element that must be transformed, for an economic
model based on the marginalization and exploitation of a large number of
individuals fosters a climate of dehumanization. In order to address the
problem of violence against women, we should thus think of ways to reverse a
systemic structure that generates "pariahs" with exacerbated feelings
of frustration who can become potential aggressors.
With regards to the particular case of femicide, it is
not a coincidence that Ecatepec, one of the places with the highest levels of violence
against women, is a municipality in the State of Mexico (the federal entity,
not the state itself) which is drowning in economic deprivation and where
femicides are on the rise, committed as much by partners as by strangers and
organized crime.
In addition to registering high levels of gender based violence,
Ecatepec is also a place where extortion, kidnapping, and robbery prevail –
that is, high rates of crime. All of the above generate a toxic amalgam affecting
the quality of life of the population.
Femicides happen in a climate of extreme brutality.
Between 2005 and 2011, 1997 women were murdered in Ecatepec – a higher number
than in Ciudad Juárez, which attracted international attention a few years ago
and where femicide was responsible for 1530 deaths between 1993 and 2014.
Research conducted by Flacso Mexico reveals that femicides are carried out mainly in urban peripheral contexts – that is, in places which are marginalized in social, educational and economic terms.
In
other words, in the State of Mexico the number of femicides in six years
exceeded those registered in a 20 year period in Ciudad Juarez. In 2017 alone,
300 femicides were reported there. As journalist Humberto Padgett has pointed
out, what femicides show is a society in a state of decomposition that kills
its own women.
They are not committed by a serial killer with a sadistic
deviation, but by many individuals who exercise and develop violence as part of
their everyday life. Research conducted by Flacso Mexico reveals that femicides
are carried out mainly in urban peripheral contexts – that is, in places which
are marginalized in social, educational and economic terms.
Another phenomenon associated with the increase in
violence is the redefinition of gender roles. In our society today, a new type
of masculinity has been defined as a result of the presence of organized crime
and drug trafficking.
This new masculinity, which is fond of waste and
ostentation, scorns a humble and modest life as shown by the young assassins
who claim to prefer a life of luxury and violence. Women are one among the luxuries
these men aspire to, and they view them as just another "possession"
which can be had. Congruent with that obtuse mentality of seeing themselves as
owners of the women in their environment, they look for ways to keep them under
control – it is their decision if they live or die.
What makes the taking of so many women’s lives
possible are the high levels of impunity. According to the University of the
Americas Global Index of Impunity in Mexico (IGI-MEX) for 2017, impunity in
Mexico characterized 69.84% of reported murders – the ominous first place in
the ranking by states was for the State of Mexico, with 80.02%.
When there is
no punishment for a large percentage of those responsible, the perpetrators of
the aggressions receive the message that their criminal acts will not be
sanctioned. In this sense, through sheer incompetence, irresponsibility and
impunity of all the parties involved (judicial police, experts, public prosecutors,
state and federal governments) have contributed to the fact that femicides have
become a true epidemic in Mexico, where seven women die a violent death each
day – out of a total of twelve in Latin America.
Trivializing the crisis with arguments such as more men than women are
dying, or that it is not that more women die but that information about their
death is more disseminated, prevents it from being seriously addressed and stops
us from implementing the necessary measures to control it.
In addition to the
inefficiency of the institutions, the blame has often been placed on the women
themselves for provoking this violence – not only by the police and public prosecutors
but also by relevant figures from the
church, politics, or other social sectors who make irresponsible statements and
end up stigmatizing women by questioning their moral integrity and sexual
behavior.
Gender violence in a global context has a shared multifaceted character being linked to impunity and poor equality education, so fighting it requires developing public policies aimed at social transformation.
Such malicious arguments match the mentality and the rhetoric of the
perpetrators themselves in India, Mexico or elsewhere in the world. They do not
contribute to solving the problem nor do they explain it by saying that if they
got killed it was because their skirt was short or because they went out at
night instead of staying home.
Staying home is not the solution, particularly
since according to figures provided by the World Health Organization, 38% of the
murders of women worldwide are committed by their partners – at home.
Gender violence in a global context has a shared multifaceted
character being linked to impunity and poor equality education, so
fighting it requires developing public policies aimed at social transformation.
Preventively, equality education that challenges prejudices should be endorsed,
promoting the unlearning of macho attitudes even in their most subtle form.
There
is also an urgent need to implement non-exclusive economic policies aimed at
incorporating large numbers of marginalized young people who have opted for
criminal activities and a violent and irrational type of masculinity.
Operatively, it is necessary to combat impunity and reverse
the current message about leniency of these crimes. Although we may speak of gender
based violence, this is in fact a generalized crisis – it is a matter of social
justice.
It cannot be seen as a private matter, for it is fueled by factors
such as marginalization, economic inequality and inequity, the increase in
violence by organized crime, new ways of understanding gender roles and poor
education. Only a broad perspective can deliver a real solution to this
emergency.