Women protest violence using painting, breastfeeding in Mexico

At different cultural institutions in Mexico groups of women on November 24 protested ahead of International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. To call attention to rampant violence and machismo in their country, dozens of women protested used painting, crocheting and breastfeeding as a medium. According to international media reports, many women painted protective barricade at the Angel of Independence monument while others crocheted purple and pink heart to string up. 

Ten women are reportedly killed each day in Mexico and the threat violence has been increasing and less than one in ten murders are solved. Women in Mexico not only face violence but they are discriminated as well. A demonstrator told an international media outlet she felt discriminated against while breastfeeding at a restaurant when she was asked by an employee to breastfeed in the bathroom rather than at the table. The protesters want breastfeeding to be normalised. The museum director Natalia Pollak also told the international media that the authorities under a new policy have allowed breastfeeding anywhere at the museum which seeks to promote gender equality and serves as an inspiration to other public spaces. Mexico City's mayor also issued a gender alert earlier this week for the capital due to which 20 of Mexico's 31 federal entities now have declared emergencies over femicides.

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International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women

The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women raises awareness among people through the means of marches, workshops, campaigns where people are about the atrocities that women suffer in different parts of the world. The date for such a historic day is based on the date of three Mirabal sisters (political activists in the Dominican Republic) in 1960. The orders for the assassination was given by Rafael Trujillo. In the year 1981, activists marked November 25 as a day to fight and make people more aware about the violence against women at the Latin American and Caribbean Feminist Encuentros (series of conferences that started in the year 1981 to build and develop networks within Latin America and the Caribbean). The date received its official resolution by the United Nations on December 17, 1999. 

(With AP inputs)

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