On Sunday, September 8th, hundreds of citizens took to the streets of Mexico City to participate in a silent march to end the ever-present violence against women in Mexico.
Forty percent of Mexican women experience sexual violence in their lifetime, according to the United Nations. Investigations into these cases are often careless, skewed in favor of the male perpetrator, and fail to collect forensic evidence of the assaults. Only 2% of reported rapists are consequently imprisoned.
In 2018, a survey was conducted by the Mexican government that concluded over eighty percent of Mexican women do not feel safe in their country.
The protesters carried pictures of murdered and missing female friends and relatives during their silent demonstration- just a small representation of the estimated 9,000 women who have disappeared in the past few years.
Elideth Yesenia Zamudio, the first mother to arrive on Sunday, said of the injustice, “We have the right to live without fear. We have to change the mindset as a society. These men are used to us being submissive.”
Sources: ABC News 9/8/19, Washington Post 9/8/19
