SARYA DENİZ/DENİZCAN ABAY

Istanbul- Mirabal Sisters… The sisters inspire women all around the world with their resistance and struggle. The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25 is a global UN program inspired by the assassination of the Mirabal sisters in the Dominican Republic on November 25, 1960.

Dictator Trujillo killed all those who opposed him and his regime. People were killed, tortured, and oppressed during the rule of Trujillo. The torture chambers in the prisons went down in history.

At that time, Mirabal Sisters and their husbands formed an underground group to fight the dictatorship in their country. The Mirabal Sisters were arrested many times by the regime. Within the group, the sisters called themselves “Las Mariposas” (The Butterflies), after Minerva's underground name. The assassinations turned the Mirabal sisters into symbols of both popular and feminist resistance.

They were targeted

Arresting Mirabal Sisters was not enough for Trujillo. “My only two problems are the damn church and the Mirabal sisters,” Trujillo said in his speech to target the sisters. His speech was actually an order to kill the sisters. 23 days later, the sisters were raped and brutally murdered by henchmen of Trujillo.

The assassinations of three sisters were announced as “an automobile accident”, the bodies of three sisters were found near the bottom of a cliff on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. Their assassinations had greater effect on Dominicans and paved the way for Trujillo's own assassination six months later. The sisters become the symbols of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. November 25 was first declared by the first Feminist Encuentro for Latin America and the Caribbean held in Bogota, Colombia in 1981. The date was chosen to honor the Mirabal sisters.

Women take to the streets all around the world

Since 1981, women's rights activists have observed 25 November as a day against gender-based violence since 1981. November 25 is a date when women have taken to the streets all around the world against male-state violence to express how women's solidarity is the most important against violence. The women have held protests, marches, demonstrations and congresses in all countries around the world. In 1999, the United Nations General Assembly designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

“Orange the World: End Violence against Women Now!”

The 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is an annual international campaign that kicks off on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs until 10 December, Human Rights Day. The United Nations Secretary-General’s UNiTE by 2030 to End Violence against Women campaign (UNiTE campaign) calls for global actions to increase awareness, galvanize advocacy efforts, and share knowledge and innovations. The global theme for this year’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, which will run from 25 November to 10 December 2021, is “Orange the world: End violence against women now!”

“Even before COVID-19, violence against women was one of the most widespread violations of human rights, with almost 18 per cent of women and girls experiencing physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner over a 12-month period. As the pandemic raged on, an alarming upsurge of the “shadow pandemic” of violence against women became evident, with increased rates of reporting on domestic violence. This year, as in previous years, many countries from across Europe and Central Asia joined the campaign by lighting up their landmark buildings in orange and organizing a variety of events in support of the campaign. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, innovative online campaigns and interactive digital art initiatives marked this year’s campaign. Here’s an overview of how Europe and Central Asia commemorated the occasion,” UN Women said in the statement shared on its website.

The Shadow Pandemic

One in three women worldwide experience physical or sexual violence mostly by an intimate partner. Violence against women and girls is a human rights violation. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, emerging data and reports from those on the front lines, have shown that all types of violence against women and girls, particularly domestic violence, has intensified. This is the Shadow Pandemic growing amidst the COVID-19 crisis and we need a global collective effort to stop it. UN Women, the United Nations launched the Shadow Pandemic public awareness campaign, focusing on the global increase in domestic violence amid the COVID-19 health crisis. Many women aren't safe in their own homes either. 137 women are killed by a member of their family every day. It is estimated that of the 87,000 women who were murdered in 2017 globally, more than half were killed by intimate partners or family members.

Tomorrow: Agenda of women in Turkey: November 25 and 5^th judicial reform package