In 2021, a woman was raped every 10 minutes in Brazil, according to a United Nations report. There were more than 1,400 femicides registered in Brazil in 2022, according to G1, a Brazilian news network. The numbers are frightening and worrying, women of all ages are at risk of being harassed, assaulted, raped, or killed.
Brazil is one of the countries that suffers the most violent harassment against women. Some of these types of violence include: psychological violence, swearing, threatening, frightening, or property violence, controlling the women’s life as well as what she likes. Another type of violence is verbal violence, that some of us might not recognize as violence, such as offensive comments, and publicly humiliating the woman by exposing their intimate life to others.
These are some of the many types of physical and sexual violence women experience in their everyday life in Brazil. Unfortunately not even little girls are excluded from those types of violence, as it might happen to anyone no matter what kind of skin color, body sizes, or sexuality. I think that at this point, from everything you’ve read, you must be asking yourself, “But in a country with such huge rates, isn’t there a law so that these rates can be reduced and bring more security to Brazilian women?” Yes, we do indeed have a law, called The Maria da Penha Law, named in honor of a woman who suffered an attempted murder by her ex-husband.
The law was approved in 2006 with the aim of punishin.
