More news on femicide in Mexico, and in Israel
Here's a recent report on the continuing crisis of femicide in Mexico:
Next, here's a local article about femicides that occurred in Israel, many of which occurred in the Arab/Islamic sector:
On a November afternoon, Mónica Citlalli Díaz left home in a sprawling suburb of Mexico’s capital and headed to the school where she’d been teaching English for years. It seemed an ordinary day, but on this one, she never arrived at work.Trouble is, Obrador's run the gauntlet of taking a lenient position on drug cartels, and what if they're also responsible for any of the misogynist violence rampant in the country? Although the government has made some recent efforts to battle the cartels more seriously, Obrador's questionable positions on cartels makes it hard to be sure he's serious about combatting the terrible tragedy of femicide in the country.
Her absence was an immediate red flag for family and colleagues. Díaz loved her work and was diligent about showing up. Friends and relatives, aware of the alarming frequency with which women disappear here, papered their city of Ecatepec with flyers featuring her photo.
After four days without any sign of Díaz, 30, they blocked the busy street in front of her school for three hours to demand action from authorities. Two days after the protest, her body was found in the brush alongside a highway.
Women in Mexico state, which wraps around Mexico City on three sides, were already dying at a frightening pace. From January to November, there were 131 femicides — cases of women killed because of their gender. Díaz was the ninth apparent femicide during an 11-day spate of killings in and around Mexico City from late October to early November.
The country saw more than 1,000 femicides last year -- second only to Brazil in Latin America — and on average, 10 women or girls are killed daily in Mexico. Mexican officials have recognized the femicide rate and violence against women in general as a major problem for decades, yet little progress is evident in national data.
Experts and advocates say the rampant killings and history of femicide in Mexico can be attributed to deep-rooted cultural machismo, systemic gender inequality and latent domestic violence, as well as a justice system riddled with problems — police officers who won’t take reports about missing women, clumsy or nonexistent investigations, prosecutors and judges who revictimize women.
With so many cases of femicide, most get little attention. But the recent run of killings, paired with the protests from Díaz’s family, put pressure on authorities and garnered headlines across the country.
Three days after Díaz disappeared, Supreme Court President Arturo Zaldívar called for a national protocol for handling femicides and said all homicides of women should be investigated as such. The next day, in response to a question at his daily press conference, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he agreed — a nationally televised endorsement from the man who sets the country’s daily agenda.
Next, here's a local article about femicides that occurred in Israel, many of which occurred in the Arab/Islamic sector:
Half of all femicide victims last year in Israel were Jewish, and half were Israeli-Arabs, including Druze, Bedouin, Christian Arabs, and Muslims.Nevertheless, this is alarming and cannot be taken lightly. So many women who deserve far better have fallen victim to a repulsive women-hating ideology, and much must be done to solve the problem.
"It appears that society is becoming more violent, and there has certainly been more violence in the Arab sector," Weil noted. There has been a rise in crime and violence in Israel's Arab communities over the years. Far fewer murder cases of Arab women are solved by the Israeli Police than femicides of Jewish Israeli victims, the IOF report stated.
But despite the trend being a concerning phenomenon in Israel, the rate of it is far better than anywhere else, including in the United States and many countries in Europe, Weil said.
“Israel has far fewer femicides per capita than most countries. As for the femicide rate in the Middle East or north Africa, it’s hard to tell because data isn’t always accurate or even existent there. But my hunch is that the rate is much lower in Israel than its surrounding region.”
“Here, there’s a new consciousness about femicide. When I started researching this phenomenon in 2008, nobody in Israel cared. But now everyone is reporting on it with a whole new awareness, and each victim is mentioned by name," she continued.
Labels: islam, Israel, Israeli Arabs, jihad, Latin America, misogyny, sexual violence, terrorism
