One of the Most Dangerous Places To Be a Woman

Veronica car in the small Central American nation of El Salvador there is a war between rival gangs and the government there is a homicide every hour giving El Salvador the highest homicide rate in the world women are being murdered in a particularly savage way not only by the gangs but also by their husbands and boyfriends these types of murders with their brutality and very intimate nature have their own name feminicide the deliberate murder of a

woman

just for being a

woman

we just got here and there is a woman's body lying there and we don't really I don't know anything about her.

The police don't want to talk to us yet, but all we could find out is that she is about 40 years old and then she was shot. Hundreds of women die violently in El Salvador every year. Their bodies are often left on the ground. streets like this in sight of families and children usually when something like this happens people disappear, they are afraid this woman is one of many caught in the crossfire of a decades-long war between rival gangs in El Salvador and no one is immune to violence you're a live recorder, right, yeah, so you've gotten SS like that a million times all the time, like al

most

every day?

So many things happen here that it has become our normal reality. I have a little daughter and I would love it. We have a better country for her because we love our country, we are proud to be Soran, but this is the reality we are in, violence is at an all time high, government troops under a tough on crime president are cracking down on gangs. a constant battle for territory, the result is total The war this last month has been the

most

violent since the end of the Civil War, like 20 years ago, last week alone there were 190 people murdered in 5 days, no place sees more the effects of this violence. that the city morg we just arrived at forensic medicine we are following the body that they collected from the crime scene there are only bodies that arrive in plastic bags and people who come to look at them and see if it is their son, daughter or husband. or brother, the majority of victims in the morg are young men between 20 and 24 years old, but just under 10% are murdered women.

It is easy to assume that these deaths are more tragic victims of gang warfare, but a close examination of the female victims tells as much. a different story many of these bodies arrive torn apart by extreme violence, a strong indication that their murders are gender-based, in other words femicides, can you see any signs in this woman that might suggest if this is a feminicide or not? What does hate look like? a body women in El Salvador are being murdered differently and with more hatred than men the question is why El Salvador's two main rival gangs, Btio 18 and MS13, have been at war with each other since the 1990s and the population of the poorest bars in the country is the guarantee. damage, although more men than women die in the conflict, it is the women who are killed in especially cruel ways to find out why we went to talk to a woman who used to be a member of one of these gangs, when you join a gang, It is for life, but after serving time in prison, this woman had the opportunity to escape and start over.

She asked us to hide her identity. Did the gangs treat you differently because you were a girl? Did they treat women from the opposite gang differently? Because? Do you think they are much more violent towards women? Experts explain this cruelty as a terror tactic, a way for gangs to intimidate their rivals by torturing their women. Although this is true, in many cases it does not explain why male gang members are the hated enemies. Of their rivals are almost never murdered as brutally as women. Our contacts here have managed to arrange a meeting with two members of Barrio 18 and two of their associates have asked us to hide their identities.

We are going to try to ask them why. Is there so much violence and why? Why do they take it out so much on women? So we met with a woman and she told us that when they kill men they usually just shoot them, when they kill women they rape them, they hit extreme violence against women it's not just gang tactics these men have the option to choose whether a woman will suffer or not and the brutality is not directed only at women from other gangs. Do you feel ashamed of this advance, advance, advance, feminicide in El Salvador?

It is not just a gang war phenomenon, we are discovering that it begins within the everyday relationships between men and women. I just don't believe that violence ever exists in a vacuum, out of context. You know, it always has a story and comes from somewhere that needs to be understood. feminicide you have to look at a certain mentality towards women that permeates the culture here it is called gossip a hypermasculine attitude that values ​​male dominance and pride at the expense of women we chose a popular bar in one of the safest neighborhoods in Salvador to ask a group of local men what they had to say about it pap fore foree syia huarez is a lawyer and activist in orusa the organization of salvadoran women for peace this attitude is something that she and her colleagues have been fighting against throughout their careers how we connect? machismo culturally to what is happening spe this is uni mare a police unit that ensures reports of violence against women are addressed before they escalate to femicide unim moare is one of 13 special police units largely made up of female officers Is there so much machismo in the police?

As in Salvadoran society in general, it is encouraging that uni Mare is ensuring the well-being of Salvadoran women. The question is: is something being done to punish these perpetrators? In 2012, a law came into effect that included feminicide on the books as its main objective. its own criminal category makes special provisions to protect women from gender violence Despite its efforts, crime against women in El Salvador remains extremely high and most perpetrators go unpunished; In fact, more than 75% of femicide cases never end in a conviction. Impunity is a huge problem. The problem in Salvador is that the level of violence, hatred and brutality that comes with the murder of women really makes it essential to investigate femicides as a completely separate crime.

This law increased public awareness of gender-based violence and also brought new attention to some recent high-profile cases. profiled cases but so far none have served the day in jail syvia huarez was one of the authors of this Landmark law for her the problem is clear until the sexist attitudes that per in the justice system or the dismissed women will be judged by a double standard and the men who abuse them will do so with impunity is a message that the women of El Salvador are taking to the streets and today's march gave me hope that by taking the issue of violence against women out of At home and on the streets these women can really defend themselves and maybe they can start to change things since the last time we were in El Salvador.

Hundreds more women have been attacked and murdered, and while the problem may be more extreme in this region, it is by no means. It means that feminicide is confined to Central America and is a global problem, but El Salvador should be a warning when women continue to be attacked for being women and when the justice system allows this to continue. There is little that can prevent society from descending into instability, violence and ciliary chaos. gual LOE Margarita Ela Ram