Femicide in Mexico

The Memory and Tolerance Museum pays tribute to the victims but also provides a source of prevention for young people of both sexes; because it delves into the high levels of violence and impunity involved in femicides in Mexico and makes us reflect on the misogyny and sexism that underline these crimes.

Femicide is the killing of a girl or a woman on account of her gender. The term "femicide" denounces the sexist violence carried out against women, where hatred towards the female condition is the primary driver that motivates the perpetrator to violence.

The nails that mark the map of Mexico indicate the most severe foci of femicide. The threads woven throughout the national territory symbolize the deaths of women.

The definition of femicide as a crime is intended to highlight the extreme form of discrimination against women, both in the private and public spheres, and to show that these cases are not isolated attacks, but are the extreme manifestation of the historical inequalities between women and men.

Typologies of femicide

Intimate feminicide.- It is the deprivation of the life of a woman committed by a man with whom the victim had an intimate relationship.

Intimate Family Feminicide.- It is the painful deprivation of the life of a woman committed by her spouse or any descendant or ascendant ( sister, concubine, adopted or adopting).

Child Femicide: This is the painful deprivation of life committed against underage girls or those without mental capacity, who have an affective or caring relationship with the criminal.

Systemic Sexual Femicide.- It is the codified murder of girls and women, whose expropriated bodies have been tortured, raped and dumped in transgressive scenarios.

Femicide for stigmatized occupations - Women killed for the occupation or the work they do, women who perform an occupation that is considered "illegal."

During 2013 and 2014, 6 women were murdered in the country on a daily basis.

According to Mexican law, femicide is committed when a woman is murdered because of her gender, and for the crime to be prosecuted as such, there must be at least one of the following circumstances.
1. The victim shows signs of sexual violence
2. The victim was injured or mutilated before or after deprivation of life or necrophilia.
3.There is a history of any type of violence in the family, at work or at school, by the person acting against the victim.
4. There has been a relationship of love or trust between the murderer and the victim.
5.There is evidence that threats were made.
6. The victim has was deprived of communication
7. The victim's body is exposed or exhibited.

Teresa Margolles seeks to explain that femicide in Mexico occurs under an environment of indolence and impunity. The sounds that are reproduced behind the images, speak of the places where the femicides are perpetrated: the city in movement, a busy street, a market, the daily noise.

Margolles emphasizes that these crimes are committed in a flagrant manner, in the face of the apathy of those who observe them.

This hallway invites you to listen to discriminatory phrases and to reflect on the questions: Have you been offended with misogynistic messages? Have you offended a woman with hurtful and discriminatory phrases?

Violence against women is a social problem that is a manifestation of the historically unequal power relations between men and women, which have led to violent social patterns.

The current problem of femicide has spread throughout the country. Between 2000 and 2006, Mexico had accumulated 140 international recommendations referring to the human rights of women, and most were directed to the procurement of justice.

The cases presented below bring us closer to the horror of feminine violence and the impunity that surrounds it.

Only one aggressor out of 32 cases has received a court judgement.

Spiral of Violence
It shows the different types of violence against women: physical, psychological, economic and sexual violence. It goes from blackmail to murder.

Spiral of Violence
-Blackmail
- Lying / Deceiving
- Ignoring
- Jealous rage
- Offending
- Imposing
- Disparaging
- Ridiculing
- Humiliating
- Forbidding / Controlling
- Aggressiveness
- Destruction of personal items
- Hitting while playing
- Pushing / Hitting
- Hitting
- Threatening with weapons
- Death threat
- Forcing sexual intercourse
- Rape
- Mutilation
- Death

Legal Responses and Recommendations

- General Law on Women's Access to a Life Free of Violence

- Protocols for the investigation of femicide

- Expertise with a gender perspective

- Gender Violence Alert

This room speaks of the struggle and progress made by civil society in denouncing and requesting the legal and criminal treatment of femicide.

Civil society responds

Social networks, marches, rallies, and work strikes have been organized in many cities of the country to demand justice from the authorities.

Irinea Buendía, mother of Mariana Lima Buendía, a young woman murdered by her partner in 2010.

This illustration showcases the fight against femicide and gender-based violence.

"Stop Violence Against Women" Poster of the Support Center for Raped Women A.C.

- "Workshops on violence" Poster of the Support Center for Raped Women A.C.

- March flyer: "No more violence against women"

- Ana Luisa Barreiro "Denounces Rape" Poster of the Support Center for Raped Women A.C.

- Cintia Bolio posters: Not a single one less, Mexico, 2016 poster to call for the march on November 25, 2016

- Promotional poster for the play "Lomas de poleo", Ciudad Juárez

The aim of the project is to raise awareness and make visible the violence, impunity and vulnerability of women, girls and young people who continue to disappear and are killed under the indifferent gaze of the authorities.

Red Shoes, Public Art Installation. Elina Chauvet

HeForShe is a campaign created by the UN to invite men, women, girls and boys to be agents of change, and together achieve gender equality and create a society that shares a vision of equity and respect for the benefit of all humanity.

HeForShe campaign promoted by UN Women.

The purpose of this exhibition was to raise awareness, through various rooms and facilities, and raise public awareness of violence against women and girls, in order to prevent and combat impunity, better protect victims and increase responsibility in response to this global pandemic.

Not one more! An urgent call for action and conscience.