The Crime of Being a Woman in Mexico and a Legal System Biased Against Them Denise Dresser - Reforma
go to original January 22, 2014

The crime of being a woman and wearing short skirts or revealing necklines. The crime of asking for it: rape, assault, getting hit or jail. The collective tragedy of murderous women for whom killing is paradoxically the only way out when faced with imminent death themselves. The common tragedy of women accused of crimes they didn’t commit, but condemned by a legal system biased against them. The way they are treated, by the legal, judicial and penitentiary systems, represents an open window to our society. A chauvinistic, sexist and misogynistic society. A society that imprisons women because it judges them more severely.

Like Elena Azaola wrote more than 10 years ago in "The Crime of Being a Woman", society is less willing to forgive the mistakes of women. They are judged more severely and with less empathy. In the Federal District [Mexico City] women convicted of murder have longer sentences than men. An average of 18.6 years for men and 23 years for women. Their trials are 50 per cent longer. Justice doesn’t treat them the same, sentence them the same, or see them the same. Although most of the murders they commit are against family members and that reveals a worrisome pattern. Murderous women were abandoned at a young age, lived in poverty, didn’t have basic necessities or the support of others. Their partner’s abuse is an extension of their childhood.

The patterns of gender relations are behind these stories. According to Azaola, 70% of murderous females were abused or abandoned by their family and 66% by their partners. 60% of women arrested were abused by the police. Police officers that commit sexual violence, over and over, when making an arrest. They touch their breasts under the guise of patting them down, offer freedom in exchange for sexual favors, and insult them. Far from preventing violence against women, they perpetuate it by denying them the dignity, voice and rights they should have but which are systematically trampled.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices

Translated by Ruby Izar-Shea

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