The 25 november is celebrated around the world World day against violence against women. But where does this anniversary come from?
The story of the Mirabal sisters
To find out, you need go back to 1960. On November 25 of that year, in fact, three sisters were killed by the dictator’s agents Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. After being stopped on the street on their way to prison to visit their husbands, they were beaten with sticks and thrown into a ravine by their executioners, who tried to put the brutal violence through an accident. It was immediately clear to public opinion that the three women had been murdered. Patria, Minerva and Mara Teresa Mirabal – these are their names – they were, in fact, known as activists of the clandestine group Movement 14 June, disliked by the government. Due to their militancy, in January 1960, they were also arrested and jailed for a few months, as recalled by the page dedicated to their history published onEncyclopedia of Women.
The fight against the dictatorship
The three sisters also went down in history with the name of The butterflies (the butterflies), for the courage shown in opposing the dictatorship, fighting personally for the rights of women. On August 3, 1960, following public pressure and allegations of human rights violations made by the Organization of American States against the regime, President Hctor Bienvenido resigned in favor of Vice President Joaqun Balaguer, while Trujillo was assassinated. May 30, 1961. The three sisters were remembered in 1995 by the Dominican writer Julia Alvarez in Time of the Butterflies, book from which the film was also taken In the Time of the Butterflies with Salma Hayek in the role of Minerva (here the trailer).
The institution of the Day
INovember 25, 1981 the first International Feminist Meeting of Latin American and Caribbean women took place and from that moment on November 25 was recognized as a symbolic date. In 1999 it was also institutionalized by the UN with Resolution 54/134 of December 17, as this in-depth analysis of the Bbc. A further step forward was taken with the recognition of violence against women as a social phenomenon to be fought, thanks to the Vienna Declaration of 1993.
The symbol of the red shoes
One of the most used symbols to denounce violence against women and raise awareness on the issue are the Red shoes, abandoned in many squares. A symbol created in 2009 by the Mexican artist Elina Chauvet with the work Red Shoes. The installation first appeared in front of the Mexican consulate in El Paso, Texas, to commemorate the hundreds of women kidnapped, raped and killed in Ciudad Juarez. With his art, Chauvet also carries on a personal battle: to remember, every day, his younger sister, killed by her partner when she was 22 years old.
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