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Did you know that in August Brazil celebrates 20 years of the Maria da Penha Law (No. 11,340/2006)? This law creates mechanisms to prevent and stop *domestic and family violence against women. It applies to any intimate relationship, such as marriage, dating or even a relationship that has already ended, regardless of whether the people involved live together and of their sexual orientation. And it is not limited to partners: it also covers fathers, stepfathers, brothers and sons.
*See the glossary at the end of this article.
The Maria da Penha Law seeks to guarantee women full protection in cases of violence. In other words, in addition to punishing the aggressor, it:
- Creates *Urgent Protective Measures (MPUs), such as removing the perpetrator of violence;
- Prevents new cases from arising (through campaigns and training, for example);
- Seeks to support women with what they are likely to lack after reporting (such as housing and money);
- And determines that the response should not be limited to the police: health, social assistance, education, labor and housing services must work together so that women can truly break the cycle of violence.
A lot has changed in the country with the Maria da Penha Law. Before it was enacted, for example, domestic violence was considered a minor offense (that is, of little seriousness) and could be settled with something as simple as handing over a basic food basket. The law also began to recognize as violence what leaves no marks on the body, such as humiliation, control over money, constant surveillance and isolation from family and friends.
To learn more about this law, visit the Instituto Maria da Penha website.
Who is Maria da Penha?
She is a biochemical pharmacist, is 81 years old and was born in Fortaleza (Ceará). In 1983, she survived two murder attempts by her then-husband; in one of them, she became paraplegic after being shot in the back while she slept. Since the aggressor was still free almost 15 years later, she took the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS), which in 2001 held Brazil responsible for negligence and recommended that she receive reparations. The law was named after her as part of these reparations. In 2009, she founded the Instituto Maria da Penha.
In cases of violence, report it!
Many victims do not report out of a sense of shame that, unfortunately, still prevails because of the way this subject is treated culturally. However, asking for protection works, it is fast, and the woman’s own account is enough. According to the National Council of Justice (CNJ), 85% of requests for protective measures received a first response from the courts within 24 hours over the past year; in 2020, the average time was 14 days. The study “Femicide and Urgent Protective Measures”, presented on August 7 by the same body, also shows that, among *femicide cases with available data on the victim, two out of three women did not have an Urgent Protective Measure against the aggressor. Most, therefore, were not protected by the law when they were killed.
The law is effective. What happens is that victims often don’t make use of the law. We usually see many femicide cases, more than cases in which the law worked. That leads some women not to use it,” says Aline Beirão, a social work technician at IC.
What is still missing?
After reporting, many women end up losing income, their support network and even their home, as they had until then depended on their aggressors. This is precisely the support the law seeks to offer victims, even if still insufficiently. “For a woman to be able to break away from violence, she needs a very good State structure to support her,” says Bárbara Lopes, coordinator of the *Women’s Reference and Citizenship Center – Casa da Mulher Brasilândia, which serves women experiencing domestic and gender-based violence and works to prevent new cases in the territory.
According to the coordinator, the fear of not being able to support themselves after leaving is one of the main obstacles today preventing victims from seeking legal protection. Many end up becoming single mothers and need to find a job, full-time school (so they can work), housing, adequate transportation and financial assistance.
In most cases, women who are leaving this cycle have also broken away from their support network. Because they only come to report when they’ve reached the end of the line, without contact with family and friends,” explains Bárbara.
Currently, the law provides for a series of measures to support victims, such as up to six months of leave from work, inclusion in social assistance programs and rental assistance. However, providing for measures is not the same as guaranteeing the budget to carry them out. For many services, such as shelters and support centers, the law states that public authorities may create them and allocate their own resources, but without requiring them to do so. “We have very low investment in policies for women; I think this underfunding and the *bureaucratization of processes are very big problems,” the coordinator adds.
Gender-based violence and migration
While some victims of domestic violence face many difficulties in securing their rights, there are women who never even come close to accessing what the law provides. This is because, for each segment of the population, violence against women manifests itself in different ways and to different degrees.
Migrant women who come to Brazil in search of better living conditions also suffer gender-based violence, but they run into additional barriers, such as lack of documentation, information, a support network and understanding of the language. And precisely because they are so vulnerable, they end up suffering new forms of violence in a self-perpetuating cycle.
Maria Isabel (fictitious name) is one of them. She is Bolivian, a mother of four, two of whom have Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and suffered multiple forms of violence from her former partner for years. She even reported him while still in Bolivia, but he kept harassing her and not paying child support.
As a way out, Maria Isabel got in touch with someone in Brazil who offered her a job and even volunteered to pay for her ticket. So she came here with her three young children (the eldest stayed in Bolivia to finish his degree) and ended up subjected to work analogous to slavery, in which she and her children went through yet another series of violations.
I was very afraid the boss would fire me. Where would I go? I came to this country in 2015, but I always stayed at home, I never went out, I never got to know anything, I have no family,” says Maria Isabel.
Over time, she built a new support network: she left her old job and moved with her children to an occupied building. It was also through a friend that Maria Isabel found Instituto C. Today she does some freelance work and recently took a jewelry-making course at the CRCM – Casa da Mulher 25 de Março, with the goal of starting to make pieces to sell. “I want to get a space where I can sell and improve [my children’s] lives. I feel that no child comes into this world to suffer,” she says.
What to do in cases of domestic or gender-based violence?
There is more than one path, and none of them requires a lawyer.
- Online police report: in São Paulo, women can file a report from home using their phone through DDM Online — within the Civil Police’s Online Police Station platform — and, in the same report, request a protective measure. The channel operates 24 hours a day and allows users to attach photos and screenshots of messages. Some incidents, however, such as rape, require in-person assistance.
- Police station: any police station will assist, but the Women’s Police Stations (DDMs) have specialized teams. There are 142 of them in the state of São Paulo.
- 190: call in emergencies. Calls are answered by trained female police officers, who provide guidance on rights and services.
- 180: the Women’s Assistance Hotline operates 24 hours a day, is free and receives reports from anywhere in the country. In addition to phone calls, it also offers assistance via WhatsApp — (61) 99610-0180 — and in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) via video call. It can also be used to answer questions about rights and find out which services are available near you.
- Protection services: reports can also be made at CRAS (Social Assistance Reference Centers) and at Women’s Reference and Citizenship Centers (CRCMs), where staff help women file a police report.
Glossary
Bureaucratization: the process of making the rules and steps of something more rigid and time-consuming.
Women’s Reference and Citizenship Center (CRCM): a municipal public facility that serves women experiencing violence, with units in several regions of the city.
Femicide: the murder of a woman because she is a woman. It is usually the result of domestic or family violence.
Urgent Protective Measure: a court decision that seeks to keep the aggressor away and protect the victim for as long as the risk lasts.
Domestic and family violence against women: the Maria da Penha Law distinguishes six types: physical, psychological, sexual, property-related, moral and, since April of this year, vicarious.
Vicarious violence: violence committed against a woman’s descendant, ascendant, dependent, stepchild, relative, or a person under her custody or direct responsibility, with the aim of harming her. One example is when the aggressor threatens the children in order to hurt the mother.
