Nicaraqua: Not One More Dead

Received via e-mail from the Women’s Network from Nicaragua:
FOR THE LIFE OF WOMEN — NOT ONE MORE DEAD
neither by femicide nor by forced maternity

NETWORK OF WOMEN OF MATAGALPA

Once again, on 25 November, international day against violence towards women, we point out the multiple ways in which our society expresses this violence, and we cannot forget the women who have been assassinated. So far this year, more than 60 women have been assassinated just because they were women.

We remember them today, but we can’t even give an exact number of how many there are. Different public institutions give different numbers. The Ministry of Health keeps strict accounting of those who are sick and die from leptospirosis* or any other epidemic. But to know with certainty how many women have been attacked and how many assassinated is no easy task. No institution of the State takes on the job of knowing how many there are. Who, then, will take the responsibility to ensure that NO MORE be killed? Who will take the responsibility of bringing up and educating the children who are orphaned?

As long as prejudices and stereotypes persist and archaic values regarding women and the role we should play in our society, violence will continue, because violence is an instrument to perpetuate the abuse of power, to keep women subjected and submissive.

But we women are not always quiet; we do not always obey. We are learning to raise our voices, to look at situations directly and assert our rights. This is why violence against us has become more acute. We scold and admonish, we are not disposed to continue being subjected to the whims of others. That is why they keep attacking us…
why they kill us.

For the machos, it is not enough to peer at us, to raise their hands against us. Verbal aggression by which they invalidate us is not enough. They have to silence us and show that we are their property, that our bodies do not belong to us, and that they are not going to permit us to take control of our own lives.

And private men do that in their private lives to control the women they consider “theirsâ€? — public men and politicians, too, the public functionaries, the church hierarchy who in a GRAND PACT have decided to use the lives and bodies of women to exert personal political leverage. This past year they have demonstrated this fact three consecutives times by criminalizing therapeutic abortion.

More than 80 women have died in the past year for reasons connected to a pregnancy, all of which could have been avoided if the women had more information, better health care and more power to make their own
decisions.

Many died because they were denied the right to a THERAPEUTIC ABORTION. Then, isn’t it somewhat demagogic to almost obsessively repeat the phrase “the people president”? Which people president?

Criminalization of abortion condemns to death the poorest women of our country and is also a clear message that women are not considered capable of deciding what is best for our own lives.

We have not seen the Women’s Institute nor the Family Ministry act aggressively to protect the rights of female children that are abused and raped and become pregnant as a result. We have not seen any forceful actions by the Supreme Court against those notaries who “marry� minors, thus legalizing the abuse committed against them

Speeches, good intentions, promises are not enough. We demand actions. In light of this, on 25 November, international day against violence towards women,

WE DEMAND
-That the crime of FEMICIDE be included in the Penal Code, with the maximum penalty. In the majority of cases, women are assassinated just for being women, for not being obedient and submissive to the will of a man, for wanting a better life without violence for themselves and for their children. The crime, therefore, and the penalty should be something different from those of crimes committed against men.

-That the State guarantee a registry that gives an exhaustive list of the various ways in which violence is expressed and especially in cases of femicide, along with information that will assist in defining priorities of the State to prevent, sanction and eradicate violence against women.

-Appropriation of sufficient fund in the federal budget to guarantee fiscal, forensic and alimentary resources to women in ALL the municipalities of the country, offering professional attention sensitive to the issue of gender violence.

-Inasmuch as violence was recognized by the Ministry of Health as a public health problem, we demand plans and campaigns for prevention and attention to women who are subjected to violence and that this issue be given the same priority as other health problems. VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IS AN EPIDEMIC, TOO.

-NO MORE DOUBLE STANDARD — enough of using religious beliefs to institutionalize violence against women. Public officials are obligated to respect the law and to make it be respected. The Constitution guarantees that one cannot impede the rights of other by invoking religious beliefs (Art. 69 Cn).

-Fewer posters and more action. We women are “the people,� too. We are citizens and we are the majority among the poor.

FOR THE LIFE OF WOMEN — NOT ONE MORE DEAD neither by femicide nor by forced maternity

NETWORK OF WOMEN OF MATAGALPA

Translation: Trisha Novak, USA