Nowadays, Peru's misogynist culture and some citizens outdated ideologies have lead to our country not being the safest place for women.
In Peru, women consist of more than the half of population. According to the statistics from INEI (The National Institute of Statistics and Information), there are about 16.641.100 women and 16.394.200 men. But why do most women still get their rights taken away nor fear facing a dangerous situation for them?
In 2017 alone, the country has registered 94 feminicides, over 2,100 underage rape victims, and nearly 28.000 cases of male violence (Martinez, 2017). However, there must be even more cases where victims remained silent for fear of being considered a liar or not having justice served for her.
Let's take an example of one case that went widespread in 2020. A 21-year-old woman was gang-raped by 5 men. She went to meet some friends, at one moment she started to feel dopey and couldn't defend herself from the aggression. She reported her case and went to court expecting to get justice. One of the lawyers from her friends said "This girl is a person who likes social life". Thousands of women and feminists were outraged by what was stated and posted on social media that just because they also like social life, that does not justify being raped or abused by men. Martinez, M. (2020)
Another case was from another 20-year-old woman who went to a bar with Espinoza Ramos in 2019. She told her family she was returning home, but she didn't. When she woke up at 6 am, she was next to his aggressor. She pushed him and ran away to her house to tell her mother what happened. They both went to report the case but in the end, the judges archived the case. Their excuse was her wearing red lace panties it meant she wanted to have sexual relations and those panties are used to have a better experience for intimate occasions.
In our country, victims have to deal with the trauma of the harassment for many years while their offenders just get a few months of prison and then are free or just never go to prison at all.
Let's not forget how a government, mostly with misogynist men, rules the country. A recent event that happened was our prime minister who verbally abused a congresswoman and made machoism posts on social media. In a matter of days after his allegations, he got recognized for his "work in favor" of Peruvian women. Ironic isn't it?
Last year's pandemic has not been a safe situation for women who live in abusive households. According to groups formed by the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Population, from March 17th to August 31st of 2020, there were reported around 14.583 cases reported of violence against women.
Therefore, thousands of women will keep facing these situations if Peruvians won't change their way of thinking. Women have always feared things like going out alone at night, wearing a skirt, going to a bar and getting drugged, being catcalled on the streets, and so on. Because we never know if we will be the next victims. If something happens to us, people will call us liars or that it was our fault. We don't know If one day we won't get home safe or completely disappear. Things like that are the reason why Peru is such a scary and dangerous place for women.
Indignación en Perú: Jueces rechazan denuncia de violación porque la víctima usaba ropa interior roja. (2020, November 14) LA Times. Retrieved from: https://www.latimes.com/espanol/internacional/articulo/2020-11-14/indignacion-en-peru-jueces-rechazan-denuncia-de-violacion-porque-la-victima-usaba-ropa-interior-roja
En cinco meses de pandemia se denunciaron más de 14 mil casos de violencia contra la mujer (2020, September 22) Rpp Noticias. Retrieved from: https://rpp.pe/peru/actualidad/en-cinco-meses-de-pandemia-se-denunciaron-mas-de-14-mil-casos-de-violencia-contra-la-mujer-noticia-1294094?ref=rpp