RIO DE JANEIRO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Tens of thousands of women in cities across Brazil rallied against gender-based violence Sunday as a record number of female victims and a series of recent high-profile cases have shocked the country.<\/p>\n
Women of all ages and some men took to the streets in Rio de Janeiro, S\u00e3o Paulo and other cities, calling for an end to femicide, rape and misogyny and for men to join them in their struggle.<\/p>\n
Alline de Souza Pedrotti\u2019s sister, who was an administrative worker in a school in Rio de Janeiro, was killed Nov. 28 by a male colleague along with another employee.<\/p>\n
Pedrotti, who was at the demonstration on the boardwalk in Copacabana, said the person who killed her sister didn\u2019t accept having female bosses.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m devastated,\u201d she told the Associated Press. \u201cBut I\u2019m fighting through the pain and I won\u2019t stop. I want changes in the legislation and new protocols to prevent this kind of crime from happening again.\u201d<\/p>\n
In another shocking case, Taynara Souza Santos was run over by her ex-boyfriend and trapped by the car, which dragged her over concrete for more than half a mile. The 31-year-old\u2019s injuries were so severe her legs were amputated. Video of the Nov. 28 incident in S\u00e3o Paulo went viral. <\/p>\n
And on Nov. 21, in the southern city of Florianopolis, English teacher Catarina Kasten was raped and strangled to death on a trail next to a beach on her way to a swimming lesson.<\/p>\n
Women raise their voices<\/p>\n
These recent cases were \u201cthe final straw,\u201d said Isabela Pontes, who was on S\u00e3o Paulo\u2019s Paulista Avenue. \u201cI have suffered many forms of abuses, and today I am here to show our voice.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 1 in 3 women in Brazil were victims of sexual or gender-based violence over the course of a year, according to a 2025 report by the think tank Brazilian Forum on Public Safety, the highest number since records began in 2017.<\/p>\n
A decade ago, Brazil passed a law recognizing the crime of femicide defined as the death of a woman in the domestic sphere or as resulting from contempt for women. <\/p>\n
Record number of female victims<\/p>\n
Last year, 1,492 women were victims of femicide, the highest number since the law was introduced in 2015, according to the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re seeing an increase in numbers but also in the intensity and cruelty of violence,\u201d said Juliana Martins, an expert in gender-based violence and an institutional relations manager at the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety.<\/p>\n
More women are speaking out against violence targeting them and have gained visibility in the public sphere, Martins said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSocial transformations seeking equality of rights and representation generate violent responses aimed at reaffirming women\u2019s subordination,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Black crosses<\/p>\n
On Sunday, demonstrators in Rio put out dozens of black crosses, while others bore stickers with messages such as \u201cmachismo kills\u201d and wore green scarfs associated with the demand for access to abortion.<\/p>\n
Evelyn Lucy da Luz, a 44-year-old children\u2019s educator, said she was a victim of an attempted femicide 10 years ago. \u201cI almost died, but I didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lizete de Paula, 79, said men who hate women had felt empowered during the term of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who dismantled public policies aimed at strengthening women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cWomen are increasingly entering new spaces and macho men can\u2019t stand this,\u201d the former architect said.<\/p>\n
Joao Pedro Corda\u0303o, a 45-year-old father of three daughters, said men have a duty to stand with women by calling out misogyny not only at protests but in day-to-day life.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnly then will we be able to put an end to \u2014 or at least reduce \u2014 the current violence against women,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hughes writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Thiago Mostazo in S\u00e3o Paulo contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RIO DE JANEIRO\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Tens of thousands of women in cities across Brazil rallied against gender-based violence Sunday as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[6908,1436,48291,48290,48289,48294,48,52,51,47,50,49,1555,7171,1492,48295,15157,48292,48293,1557,72],"class_list":["post-85821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-brazil","tag-case","tag-female-victim","tag-femicide","tag-gender-based-violence","tag-high-number","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-man","tag-nov","tag-public-safety","tag-recent-high-profile-case","tag-right","tag-sao-paulo","tag-think-tank-brazilian-forum","tag-woman","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}