Thousands of women across Latin America on Wednesday took to the streets to demand an end to sexual harassment and violence in a region where crime against women is rife and often steeped in traditional culture.
“March 8: If you stop a woman, you stop the world,” said a banner at a rally in Montevideo that attracted tens of thousands of protesters marking International Women’s Day.
The gathering extended 1.5km along 18 de Julio Avenue, with demonstrators calling for an end to violence against women and equal rights.
Photo: AP
“Sorry to bother, but we’re being killed,” a handwritten message on a cardboard placard said.
Every 30 hours, a woman in Argentina is killed by her male partner or ex-partner.
“Enough already! We want each other alive,” read signs in purple lettering waved by the thousands who jammed the Plaza de Mayo in front of Argentina’s presidential palace.
Photo: AFP
Purple is the symbol of the movement against gender-based violence.
Demonstrators were mostly dressed in black to signify mourning.
Violence against women is part of long-held traditions in many of South America’s Andean nations and is also pervasive in countries such as Argentina and Uruguay.
Even in better-off cities across the region, women who go to police stations bruised and battered to report domestic violence are told to go home and make up.
Half of the 25 countries with the largest number of women killed are in Latin America, according to UN Women, a body that supports gender equality and the empowerment of women.
In Mexico City, thousands of women filled the vast Paseo de la Reforma.
“We don’t want flowers. We want rights,” they chanted. “Being a woman should not be a risk factor.”
Mexican women say they are constantly beset by unwanted sexual talk on the streets and often groped by strangers.
The region’s only current female national leader, Chilean President Michele Bachelet, said on Twitter that “we renew our commitment to more rights, opportunities and an end to violence.”
Brazilian President Michel Temer sparked a media firestorm on International Women’s Day, saying that women are really good at food shopping, price tracking and budgeting.
Temer then said that if children grew up successfully, it was because they were raised right at home.
“And certainly, that isn’t done by the man. It’s the woman,” Temer said.
People took to Twitter to criticize the politician.
“Somebody tell Temer that we are in the 21st century now,” one netizen said.
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