SHARE's Programs

On December 10, 2003, the day on which World Human Rights Day is celebrated, in Liberty Park, the plaza at the center of San Salvador, a person found a suitcase on one of the park benches. Upon opening it, he was horrified to discover the severed head of a young woman. The remainder of the body was later found in different parts of the city. The woman could not be identified.

On March 8, 2006, the International Day of Women, a young woman about 25 years old, left home early one morning to walk to work. As celebrations were being held throughout the world in honor of women, this young woman was assaulted less than 500 meters from her neighborhood. Three individuals hit her, threatened her and robbed her; one of the men also violently raped her. To date the police have not found the perpetrators.

On March 5, 2007 Rufina Amaya, the sole survivor of the 1981 El Mozote massacre during El Salvador’s civil war, awoke stunned to find she had no feeling in her arms or legs. She hurriedly traveled to San Francisco Gotera for an immediate medical consultation. The hospital refused to see her and sent her home. Rufina made an appointment for the next day at a more advanced hospital in San Miguel; around 8 p.m., however, she began to feel much worse and returned to San Francisco Gotera. Once there she suffered respiratory failure and a cerebral hemorrhage. Rufina remained conscious through her transfer to the San Miguel hospital, but then suffered a heart attack and lost consciousness. She died March 6 th.

Such assaults against women are an increasingly regular occurrence in El Salvador and are a result of a social system that discriminates against its own people not only on the basis of economic status but also gender.

Violence against women, particularly young women, is growing dramatically and frequently ends in death. The figures for female assassinations are increasing year to year. Although the statistics are particularly alarming in Mexico and Central America, the figures are also on the rise in South American countries like Peru and Bolivia.

Women’s organizations throughout the region, alarmed by these trends, are working together to highlight this problem, create strategies and pressure leaders for solutions.

In El Salvador the awareness of feminicide and the recording of violent female deaths began in 2001 by women’s organizations. Feminicide refers not only to murders of women, but to all forms of oppression, violence or omission that can cause the deaths of women, such as health policies and practices that result in their deaths from perfectly preventable illnesses.

Despite the recent initiation of record keeping, the data already shows alarming trends.

In El Salvador violent deaths of women have risen alarmingly. In the period January 2001 to October 2005 alone, 1,234 female deaths were recorded, with a significant increase from year to year.
Most of the victims were between the ages of 20 to 29.
Guns were the most common weapons used in these crimes.

The women’s movement is developing joint analysis of the data on regional and national levels, and studies have been done on Central America and Mexico. As part of this process and to exchange experiences, the SHARE Foundation supported the first regional seminar on feminicides. “The Right of Women to a Life Free of Violence" was held in El Salvador in March of 2007.

The seminar was sponsored by a coalition of organizations, including the SHARE Foundation, a new SHARE partner – Women’s Organization of El Salvador for Peace (ORMUSA), Las Dignas, Las Melidas, Oxfam America, United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Women from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico and El Salvador gathered to discuss and deepen their understanding of the causes and consequences of feminicide in the region and to come to an agreement on future actions to prevent this scourge that threatens the life of women.

The sharing of experiences and exchange of useful information across borders will serve to advance the response to feminicide and save the lives of Central American women.

Participants at the seminar shared the realities within their home countries and goals to fight this now globalized tragedy. Specifically, they studied a law recently approved in Mexico that for the first time in the history of Latin America and the world recognizes feminicide as a crime of the State and a crime against humanity.

Most of this violence against women occurs with impunity. Women’s organizations are also advocating that those responsible for all these crimes – whether it is the State, its institutions, officials, aggressors or criminals – pay for their crimes. They are demanding that justice is done for all women.

Despite the fact that the reality women must face daily is becoming increasingly difficult, the women’s movement is a sign of hope in the struggle for the rights of women.

We want to continue to be part of that hope. The SHARE Foundation, strongly committed to human rights and the empowerment and leadership development of women, not only helped finance this event, but other staff members and I also participated in the seminar. Learning more about the magnitude of the phenomenon will help us better accompany these women in the hope of preventing and eradicating these tragedies.

We need your help in bringing greater awareness to this tragedy and ending this dire threat to women in El Salvador and throughout Central America.

It is nothing less than saving the lives of women – women of every age, social strata, religion, ideology and race – until the right to live a dignified life without violence is achieved.

I invite you to join SHARE in supporting women who are harnessing their power, standing up against injustice and organizing to bring hope to all women and an end to this travesty.

In solidarity,

Marina Peña

El Salvador Office Director

P.S. Last month you celebrated Mother’s Day in the United States. This senseless violence is leaving countless children without a mother. Your gift helps save the lives of not only women, but also the girls and boys left behind. Please contribute today.