Details from Datafolha’s latest study, “Visible and Invisible: The Mistreatment of Women in Brazil,” reveal that roughly 12,000 women are victims of some form of violence each day in Brazil.
Each hour some 503 women are victims of a moral offense, physical violence or unwanted touching. Two out of three Brazilians have witnessed these acts and other forms of aggression against women.
The most common form of harassment, according to the survey, is disrespectful comments on the streets.
The study was commissioned by the Brazilian Forum of Public Safety and undertaken between February 11 and 17. Approximately 2,000 people were surveyed, of which over 1,000 were women.
Ben Hur Viza, a federal district judge ruling on cases of violence against women, stated that oftentimes victims don’t file reports due to fear of being considered culpable or blamed for the attack.
“Why did he attack you? Why didn’t you say no or why didn’t you leave the relationship if he hadn’t previously attacked you? Such questioning transfers the blame from the man to the woman,” Hur Viza said.
Fernanda Silva was married for 20 years and was frequently attacked by her husband.
“We’d argue and he always beat me. I lost my job twice because of this. My eyes and parts of my body were red. I didn’t have the courage to report him because of my family and my child with autism,” she said.
Like Silva, 60 percent of attackers were current or ex-partners or husbands of victims. Nevertheless, 52 percent of these victims didn’t file police reports. Only 11 percent of women even went to the police station and 13 percent sought help from family members.
Source: tele sur
