For the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (25. November) two Argentinian organisations have released statistics on femicides within the country. The results were shocking. One of the organisations, Casa de Encuentro, registered 245 cases of femicide from January until end of October, while another, Mumala, registered 254 from January until middle of November. That's equivalent to one woman being murdered every 29 hours!
To add insult to the injury, 18% of this cases had already been denounced while 12% of them had some sort of restriction order issued. This of course did not stop the women's aggressors to commit their heinous crimes. It's important to note that in 2016 over half of the murders were committed by partners or ex-partners, which not only gets to show how women are not safe at home, but also how it is in circles near to them that these crimes are committed in the first place.
There is rising criticism towards missing free judicial sponsorship regarding violence against women. As these killings show, a lot more could have been done for women, who had the possibility to go to court. We are talking here about women, who against all odds of being ostracized, beaten or killed had the courage and strength to rise up against their aggressors and go to court to save themselves and sometimes also their children (mothers and pregnant women also make up part of the victims!). The fact that all their efforts were in vain is just barbaric, twisted and cruel.
This goes to show what the true face of patriarchy looks like.
It's important to look at the problem by what it is and not to get caught up in misleading claims of single acts of violence, perpetrated by single individuals. The problem goes deeper than that. To ignore the obvioussystematic oppression and silencing of women is to ignore the problem altogether! In this sense, better judicial sponsorship is a good first step in reducing femicides, but only when women unite join the revolutionary struggle to smash down this old and rotten system, will the patriarchy and thus femicides, domestic violence and other forms of women's oppression be completely destroyed.