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Breaking Silence - Femicide in Latin America

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June 3, 2015

The murder of women simply because of their gender now has a name: femicide. In Latin America, where machismo still determines the relationship between the sexes, femicides are particularly common. But there is also a growing awareness of the problem and women are now starting to stand up for their rights.

The filmmaker Paula Rodriguez Sickert has traveled through the Andean countries of Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru and tells the stories of women who were attacked or killed because they wanted to live their lives their own way. One of those women survived - but only just. Today she champions other victims of violent sexist attacks. The film shows how survivors, victims’ relatives and committed lawyers are fighting against the failure of justice in systems where the murder of a woman is more often tolerated as a misdemeanor than condemned as a crime.

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