A week dedicated to the International Women's Day

Two weeks ago we had a week dedicaded to feminist activities due to the International Womens Day. It started off with a press conference on monday, where the CEM-H gave their political positioning in the context of the International Women's Day, presented their coming activities and topics that would be discussed.

My compañeras (and role models) from CEM-H in the press conference

On Thursday we had organized a big forum with the heavy topic of femicides. There were representatives from different women and feminist organizations from El Salvador and Guatemala sharing their experiences concerning femicides, there were also participants from the Observatory of Violence showing statistics of killings and femicides across the country (that did not coincide with the numbers from the police). There were women who shared their own personal experiences, close relatives to women that had been killed by their exboyfriends and women who were seriously assaulted because of their sex. A lawyer held a presentation of the juridical obstacles for the victims of violence and femicides. The day was full of interesting but also devastating facts and testimonials. 

Every day, two women are being killed in Honduras, the main procent of the assasinated are between 15-19 years old. Allthough the general number of murders in the country are slightly reduced (but still very high), the numbers of femicidios have increased. And the impunity for these murders is extremely high, 97% of the killings have not been correctly investigated. The governmental support for the victims and relatives of killed women is close to nonexistant. 
The reality is brutal, female lifes does not seem to matter that much. Many blame the murdered girls and women for being murdered. "They put themselves in these dangerous situations". There seems to be a structural misogyny in the society. The problem lies deep in the heart of the society, in terms of attitudes and ideas of gender. The phenomenon of violence against women is normalized.

Sometimes I feel a wawe of helplessness crashing over me, there is so many fundamental things to fight for here. And some things seem to go backwards instead of developing in the right derection. But then I look around me and I feel ashamed, how can I feel like giving up so easily? Giving up is not an option for the women here. The only option is to continue fighting, no matter how many obstacles and injustices that come in your way. There is a lot of wrath, a sence of extreme injustice, sorrow and pain among these women, but they convert it into a great strength. A strength that they always will carry with them in the struggle for change, for the lifes of the women of Honduras.