International Day Against Violence Against Women in Honduras

[L. Coyote]

International Day Against Violence Against Women in Honduras
by Jackie McVicar - November 27, 2009 - http://www.mediacoop.ca/story/2145


The brutal assassination of the Mirabel Sisters on November 25, 1960 marked a horrific day for women political activists and those struggling against oppression at the hands of their State. ......

Women political activists in Honduras are also paying a price for speaking the truth against a regime that has raped, disappeared and murdered women since the coup d’état on June 28 that ushered in a military and oligarchy backed regime. The Honduras based Center for Women’s Rights – CDM reports serious violations that women have suffered in the past five months. In their recent publication of Time to Read, distributed widely on November 25 throughout Tegucigalpa, some horrifying examples were outlined.

“During the repressions executed by the policy and the armed forces by order of the de facto President Roberto Micheletti and his team, women have been victims of a distinct kind of violence that is aimed directly at our female body. We are victims of sexual abuse, they beat our breasts, hips, buttocks and vulva; they put batons in our crotch, they threaten us with rape and other types of sexual aggression in a clear demonstration of contempt of this society towards the body and the integrity of women.”

According to CDM, 51 women were murdered during the first month after the coup d’état, a number which is much higher than the 18 registered monthly in the months before the coup. In three and half months following the coup, 147 women were killed. At the same time, the number of women denouncing domestic violence has dropped. CDM speculates that it’s because women have lost the trust in public institutions, like the police, to whom these cases must be reported, according to the law.

This is why many Honduran women won’t be going to the polls on November 29: “There isn’t enough trust,” says Gilda Rivera, Director of the CDM, affirmed at a press conference held November 25 in Tegucigalpa. “There has been a series of events that have caused us fear.” The Center has gathered testimony from women throughout Honduras ................

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[niyad]

1. thank you for posting this. and this admin is, at least tacitly, backing the coup regime. nice.