Tom Phillips: Mexico's 'glitter revolution' targets violence against women
Sandra Aguilar-Gomez remembers an atmosphere of camaraderie and celebration
when thousands of Mexican women took to the streets for the “violet spring”
protests of 2016. Three years later and
the demonstrators are back to demand an end to violence against women – but
this time the mood has soured. “What I saw on the
streets was rage and desperation,” Aguilar-Gomez, 28, a postgraduate student
and feminist activist, said of the recent rallies in Mexico City. “Because
things haven’t changed a bit.” Aguilar-Gomez is one
of thousands of women who have joined the so-called revolución diamantina”
(glitter revolution)
in Mexico’s sprawling capital.
The movement earned its name after
protesters showered
Mexico City’s security chief with pink glitter during their inaugural
demonstration on 12 August. That protest was a
reaction to the alleged rape of a teenage girl by four police officers in
Azcapotzalco, to the north of Mexico City, in the early hours of 3 August. The demonstrators, who
marched with placards saying, “All Women Against All Violence” and, “If you
violate women we will violate your laws”, are also demanding broader changes in
a country where an
average of 10 women are murdered every day and virtually all such
crimes go unpunished.
“It is an
unsustainable, femicidal situation,” said Yndira Sandoval, a campaigner whose
group, Las Constituyentes,
is among those that has joined the movement. “Every day girls are
going missing, women are going missing, women are being violated and raped …
and we want a political response that reflects the scale of this national
emergency,” added Sandoval, who said she had been the victim of a sexual
assault in 2017. When Mexico’s leftist
president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, took office last December promising
a new era of social justice, many activists, Sandoval included, hoped
positive change was finally on the horizon... read more:
see also
Masood Saifullah - Afghan Women Cry For Help After Journalist Mina Mangal's Killing