Comments on: Femicide, anger and struggle: stories of women's activism in Honduras

By: Pete

Pete — Thu, 24 May 2012 16:08:43 +0000

It sounds like Oxfam is doing very valuable work there in Honduras and that women’s rights need to be hugely improved.

The levels of domestic violence are appalling, however, with regard to the murder rate, I looked at the figures in Charli’s link and my understanding (with limited Spanish) is that about 90% of murder victims are male. So murder in Honduras is gender related but the vast majority of victims are male and talking about femicide seems quite odd. If it was the other way around and 90% of the victims were female, would it be acceptable to campaign about the numbers of men being killed?

So, please continue focussing on women’s rights, empowering women and ending domestic abuse, but don’t spoil the story with talk of femicide as that level of distortion of data damages the credibility of campaigns and other work in this field.

Duncan – if my Spanish has lead to me not understanding the statistics, please delete this post!

By: Charli

Charli — Thu, 24 May 2012 13:02:12 +0000

Thank you for this insightful update of the situation in Honduras, which is barely covered in the media in the UK. I’m due to return there this summer after having lived there 6 years ago, which has led me to pay more attention to these issues which affect people I know there. The results are sobering to say the least. Including this very detailed (Spanish) systematic report on violence in Honduras (including femicide) from the Observatory on Violence from the Democracy, Peace and Security Institute (IUDPAS), which shows how the level of violence has increase drastically in recent years, and who the principal victims are:
http://iudpas.org/pdfs/NEd24EneDic2011.pdf

It is great to know that Oxfam is working on these issues and that the women involved are growing in their courage to stand up against violence.

By: Kenny Roger, CMF

Kenny Roger, CMF — Thu, 24 May 2012 09:24:10 +0000

Is it insecurity from the men’s part to downgrade and humiliate women in such societies or some illusion of superiority that men derive by ridiculing women like this? I hope the world realizes that the more you respect women, the better progress they make. Mother-in-laws behaving worse as mentioned from one of the accounts – I wonder whether they went through anything harrowing as what their victims endure .. strange ways !!