Today’s piece pays homage– and it must– to the brave women of Chile and around the world who are standing up for their right to be free from sexual and gender-based violence. Currently, Mexico leads the world in murder of women and other forms of sexual violence. The United Nations, whose research wing may be the only thing it has going for it these days, has this to say:

• Approximately 15 million adolescent girls (aged 15 to 19) worldwide have experienced forced sex (forced sexual intercourse or other sexual acts) at some point in their life. In the vast majority of countries, adolescent girls are most at risk of forced sex by a current/former husband, partner or boyfriend. Based on data from 30 countries, only one per cent ever sought professional help . 
• Globally, one out of three students (aged 11 and 13 to 15 years) have been bullied by their peers at school at least on one day in the past month, with girls and boys equally likely to experience bullying. However, boys are more likely to experience physical bullying than girls, and girls are more likely to experience psychological bullying, particularly being ignored or left out or subject to nasty rumours. Girls also report being made fun of because of how their face or body looks more frequently than boys. School-related gender-based violence is a major obstacle to universal schooling and the right to education for girls .
• Twenty-three per cent of female undergraduate university students reported having experienced sexual assault or sexual misconduct in a survey across 27 universities in the United States in 2015. Rates of reporting to campus officials, law enforcement or others ranged from five to 28 per cent, depending on the specific type of behavior.
• It is estimated that of the 87,000 women who were intentionally killed in 2017 globally, more than half (50,000- 58 per cent) were killed by intimate partners or family members, meaning that 137 women across the world are killed by a member of their own family every day. More than a third (30,000) of the women intentionally killed in 2017 were killed by their current or former intimate partner.

In Chile the deployment of sexual violence as a tactic condoned by the regime of Pinera, has left hundreds of women brutally assaulted, raped and treated with sexual violence. Disappearances and sexual torture that characterized the Pinochet regime and then “Dirty War” in Argentina under the generals, have made a very real come-back. In Spain, as the courts collude with rapists to let gang-bangers go free, women have also had enough. In Italy and France, sexual violence is endemic and routinely dismissed as a crime “of passion”. Solidarity with women all over the world is so important, because for us, sexual violence, is not an issue, but rather the framework within which our lives are conducted, on the streets, at school, at work, at a party, at a protest, at places of worship, in jail, on-line, or in the bedroom.

A Rapist in Your Way

The patriarchy is a judge

that judges us for being born

and our punishment

is the violence you don’t see.

The patriarchy is a judge

that judges us for being born

and our punishment

is the violence  that you’ve seen.

It’s femicide.

Impunity for my killer.

It’s disapperance.

It’s rape. 

And I ‘m not guilty, not because of where I was or how I dressed

And I ‘m not guilty, not because of where I was or how I dressed

And I ‘m not guilty, not because of where I was or how I dressed

And I ‘m not guilty, not because of where I was or how I dressed

The rapist is you.

The rapist is you.

It’s the cops,

the judges,

the state,

the president. 

The oppresive state is a rapist.

The oppresive state is a rapist.

The rapist is you

The rapist is you

“Slumber gently, innocent girl

without worrying about the riff-raff,

in your sweetly smiling dreams,

will be revealed your loving lieutenant”*

the rapist is you

The rapist is you

The rapist is you

The rapist is you

*(fragment of the Policeman’s Hymn of Chile)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/06/chilean-anti-rape-anthem-becomes-international-feminist-phenomenon?fbclid=IwAR0qy4PvkMWX11h7EtYz-cuQe0Hlw_nwGF0jQm7JqQ6w722QYypJ31-0Qqo