Contempt for women in Brazil, Patria

A(r)mada
 - Verbena Córdula

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Although not surprising, the violence perpetrated by magistrate Joana Ribeiro Zimmer, who denied
the right to an abortion to an 11-year-old rape victim, is astonishing, demonstrating the perversity of
the current government’s agenda of customs. In the same week, prosecutor Gabriela Barros was
brutally beaten by her colleague Demétrius Macedo, revealing the urgency of stopping the
misogyny that reigns as never before in Brazil.
This “head of state” has often shown his contempt for women, having even, in 2017, called his only
daughter the fruit of a “weakness”. These attitudes, of course, reverberate and take shape in his
followers and end up empowering and amplifying violent behaviour directed at women.

The current head of the national government’s contempt for women is nothing new. Already in the
campaign for the Presidency of the Republic he made his position on gender issues clear. Asked
about wage inequalities between men and women, for example, the then candidate responded that
the issue should be brought before the courts on a case-by-case basis.

In 2019, despite all the campaigns and efforts of countless individuals and entities that have
historically sought to combat sex tourism in Brazil, the President of the Republic himself stated that
“anyone who wants to come here and have sex with a beautiful woman, feel free”.

In 2021, the current head of the Federal Executive stated that the approval of a bill to increase the
fine for companies that discriminate against women would make it almost impossible for them to
enter the labour market. Discrimination against women by the President of the Republic does not
stop there. In the same year he vetoed a very important law that provided for the free distribution of
sanitary towels to vulnerable adolescent girls, as a way to prevent many from dropping out of
school because they could not afford this personal hygiene item.

Discrimination is also part of the behaviour of “presidential staff”. In 2018, General Hamilton
Mourão, Vice-President of the Republic, said that children raised without father figures are easily
seduced by organised crime. And to “put the icing on the cake”, the military officer emphasised that
he was not discriminating or criticising women, but rather that he was “noting something that
happens in an obvious way in our poor communities”.

As we can see, Mourão not only criticised and discriminated against women, but he did so in
relation to women from poor communities and children of the same origin. In addition to being
sexist, he also proved to be classist and racist, given that the majority of women living in deprived
communities in our country are black.

As if that were not enough, the current government had as head of the Ministry of Women, Family
and Human Rights until last March, Damares Alves, who in September 2020 stated that a girl raped
 by her uncle from the age of 6 to 10 should have continued the pregnancy, because “what was in
that girl’s womb was a baby almost six months old”.

Given these facts (and many others not mentioned), we can say that the conduct of Judge Joana
Zimmer and the prosecutor Demétrius Macedo does not “surprise” us, since both public officials
have practical examples of contempt for women, on the part of the Head of State himself and his
staff. Because violence, in its most varied facets, has become the identity of the current Brazilian
government. Using Machiavelli as a metaphor, we can say that the current president’s followers act
like soldiers who must “love the prince with a military spirit, insolent, cruel…”.

However, the fact that we are not “surprised” does not mean that these behaviours should be
tolerated and accepted. Brazilian society as a whole must demand that the bodies in charge of
monitoring the conduct of both officials hold both the magistrate and the prosecutor accountable in
order to send a clear message that we will not stand idly by in the face of these forms of behaviour.

The trivialisation of violence in this country must end. We cannot let such examples become
benchmarks for future generations. Otherwise, all the struggles undertaken so far will not have the
effects so desired by those of us who defend human rights. It is necessary to institute zero tolerance
for violence practised by individuals, institutions and the state itself.