A group of indigenous Aymara women in Bolivia are proposing to punish infidelity with imprisonment and include it in the law to guarantee a life free of violence, as they believe it is a key factor for many men in rural areas to abandon them. to exercise other types of violence against them.
One hundred indigenous women leaders from twenty municipalities in La Paz department met to discuss violence against women and decided to present a draft to the Ministry of Justice to include infidelity in the law that protects women from violence. Different types of violence.
“Women have identified that the fundamental root of domestic violence is infidelity, so they say it should be stiffened,” Alicia Canaviri, director of the Aymara Center for the Integral Development of Women (CDIMA), told Efe.
This entity has taken the resolution of the women’s meeting and is now preparing the project that will be presented in the coming weeks to the Ministry of Justice, according to Canaviri.
ABANDONMENT
The reasons for Aymara women to propose this change to the norm are due to several cases of “abandonment” in rural areas by their husbands who migrate to the city and start another family.
“There are many women abandoned in rural areas because the man comes to town and finds another partner and the first is left alone with the children,” explains the director.
The days of many women in different provinces are complicated after they have been abandoned, because many are “watched” by the community itself, have trouble continuing to work on their crops or animals and even raise their children, says Canaviri.
“Where is the fidelity they promised? They consider it very serious, because the family is falling apart,” the director points out.
In other cases, he says, men start insulting their wives, verbally and physically abusing them, telling them they have no value, that they are no longer nice in their eyes, or that they grow old when they have another wife. leads to femicide.
“The woman suffers physical violence because the husband is with another woman, psychological violence because she is insulted, because she is useless, because she is stupid, because she does not know how to cook, while, for example, the other is professional, we are outraged by this Canaviri explains.
Many of the women in rural areas do not know how to apply the law against sexist violence and do not find justice in their communities, leader Virginia Benito told Efe.
On some occasions, indigenous authorities try to reconcile the couple and there are cases where men agree “between beers” so that they agree with them, adds Benito.
“We need to be evaluated,” said Santusa Alejo, a community promoter in the Jesús de Machaca community about 97 kilometers from La Paz.
PENALTY FOR THE UNFAITHFUL
The rule that this group works with is to punish the infidelity of both men and women, the idea is that it can be “punished” with imprisonment depending on the “severity” of the infidelity.
“Infidelity cannot be considered a normal life situation, because it treats the woman and all family members badly,” says Canaviri.
In addition, it examines whether to propose economic or community sanctions, such as repairing roads for those “unbelievers”.
It is not yet clear what kind of evidence can be presented in these cases or in prison years, but they are working on these points to present the project.
This proposal has been mocked on social media, but women say that this situation is real, that “it’s not a joke” and that what they are looking for is to preserve the “dignity” and “integrity” of women.
With this, they hope that “men will refrain from abandoning their family”, like women, and “will return to values”, concludes Canaviri.
Although the rule is still being structured, the director has already received several calls from women denouncing the infidelity of their partners.
The Bolivian prosecutor’s office this year registered 7,634 cases of violence against women and minors, and most of them, approximately 6,344, are related to “domestic or domestic violence”.
According to these data, there are 351 cases of rape of women, 342 of sexual abuse and 282 rapes of minors. From January to the first days of March, Bolivian authorities reported 24 femicides.