“It is unacceptable to have only one woman in each City Council. Even so, they are threatened all the time by the way they dress and speak. When they raise the tone, they are called hysterical, crazy, and men are not. I did a pregnant campaign and suffered gender violence. It didn’t matter if I was pregnant. Many asked me why you are not going to take care of your pregnancy, because you are coming to the campaign. Do you know why it bothers a pregnant woman in politics? Because we are not the majority”. The report is by Anne Moura, who ran for lieutenant governor of Amazonas in 2022 and is the regional coordinator of the National Forum of Instances of Women from Political Parties.
Like her, thousands of Brazilian women are victims of aggression and name calling for being women, political gender violence.
A survey cited by UN Women points out that 53% of female mayors elected in 2016 reported to have experienced harassment or political violence. Among the youngest, under 30 years of age, 91% had to have been the target of attacks.
Political violence against women is any act aimed at preventing or restricting their access or inducing them to make decisions contrary to their will. Most of the time, it is manifested through threats, insults against women’s private life, physical appearance and way of dressing.
Anne Moura was one of the participants in the launch, this week, of the Campaign to Combat Political Violence against Women, coordinated by the Chamber of Deputies. The event brought together deputies, senators, ministers and representatives of civil society organizations.
“What we really want is to be able to say that our place is where we want and where we can most contribute to democracy in Brazil. Therefore, parliaments and public structures are also a place for women,” she said. second-Secretary of the Chamber, deputy Maria do Rosário (PT-RS).
Political violence is pointed out as one of the reasons for the lower presence of women in the Legislative Houses and other spaces of power. Among the Parliaments of 193 countries, Brazil appears in 153rd place in relation to the representation of women, according to the ranking of the Inter-Parliamentary Union. In Latin America, the country is ahead only of Belize and Haiti.
The Minister of Racial Equality, Anielle Franco, recalled “one of the greatest political violence that the country has ever experienced”, the murder of her sister and councilor Marielle Franco, in 2018, after participating in an event that debated the participation of black women in politics. The minister highlighted that women suffer political violence throughout their lives: in campaigns, during their mandate and after they leave office.
“We know that the system is designed to prevent women from entering this place. Black women mayors are only 4%. And if we trace all the profiles, these numbers will decrease, ”she said.
Research and reports show that aggressions occur in person, when women are on the streets and are attacked, or in the virtual world, through fake news and attacks on social networks and personal pages.
“We can’t let them silence us, that’s what they want based on hatred, misogyny, threats and in the most diverse ways, whether on the internet or in person, is not to let us be candidates. It is to make us give up this place, which is public and so conquered by women in struggle. This was not a gift”, emphasized the Minister of Women, Cida Gonçalves.
At the event, the mayor, Arthur Lira (PP-AL), proposed that the House articulate with other entities the creation of a protocol for preventing and combating gender political violence.
Punishment
Law 14.921 of 2021 provides for punishment for those who commit a crime of political violence against women. For example, partisan propaganda that disparages the condition of women or encourages discrimination on grounds of female gender, color, race or ethnicity is prohibited.
The penalty is from 1 to 4 years of imprisonment, and a fine and can be increased by one third if the crime is committed against a pregnant woman, woman over 60 years of age or with a disability.
* With information from the Câmara de Notícias Agency
