Director of Casa de la Mujer: The Background of Femicides

It's not a matter of jealousy, but of power.

July 31, 2017

Miriam Suárez, Women's House

“When a woman says ‘enough’, the sexist feels he is losing ground and tries to regain it.”

Femicide is the ultimate expression of an abysmally unequal relationship between a man and a woman, which occurs when there is a relationship of hierarchy, of power, in which someone commands and another obeys.

When that obedience breaks down, because the woman has grown tired of that submissive position, there is an immediate reaction, and we see femicide as a result of the breakdown of that authoritarian hierarchical situation. When the woman says ‘enough,’ ‘enough,’ ‘we’ve had enough,’ the patriarchal, sexist power of the man feels it is losing ground and wants to regain it.

It's not a matter of love or jealousy that leads to the murder of a woman. It goes beyond the affection a man claims to have; it's a political issue that leads to the worst possible punishment for any woman who tries to break free from that cycle of dependence. There is no more humiliating way to demonstrate power over another person than to subject them to outrages.

It's an attitude of revenge, not jealousy or something drunkenly does; we have to have the critical ability to see that.

The increase in cases of violence, femicides, and human trafficking can be interpreted, on the one hand, as women's weariness of being faithful sheep and their realization that they have the transformative capacity that reality demands of them, and to empower themselves in their own lives and decisions.

There are also other elements and factors, such as culture and the primitive mentality of some men. That's why we, both authorities and civil society, must reflect on our behaviors, which are part of a culture, and ask ourselves what kind of men and women we are raising.