29
considered “acts of terrorism intended to keep all women in their place through
intimidation. Zulma Mendez explained to me
“Myself as a researcher, I was very scared. Because the fact is that you
do not know the complicities, and the interests that are being moved.
That fact is that nobody has been found guilty. In Cd. Juárez there are
many women who are being threaten as well as those who have participated
and have important roles in different actions related to violence against
women. They have received dead threats, or saying to them take care of
their daughters. There are a lot of risks and a high degree of vulnerabilty.
The “non-violence” network was a strategic group designed to protect
ourselves.”
Different agencies have created mechanism to frighten, dominate and control women
and girls. Acts of sexual terrorism are constituted by both real and implied violence.
Thus, an obscene telephone calls is a form of sexual intimidation viewed as terrorist by
many women, just as are sexual harassment and more direct physical assault or
violence. Sexual terrorism is reinforced with job insecurity, low wages, and absence of
benefits, lack of support social services. Sonia Torres explained to me the objectives of
the “red de no violencia”:
“There are approximately 20 organizations concerned with violence
against women. The agenda is related with the no stigmatization of the
relatives of the women who were killed, to have links with the international
community, because here there is nothing that indicates that things will be
solved (aqui la pelopita se la hechan entre el gobierno municipal, estatal y
federal.).We have to insist that this is not right. It is totally wrong that more
than 300 women have been killed and that very little, if any, has been done
about it”
Women who are active in the defense of women’s rights have stated that harassment
against women is very consistent, intense and prolonged. Most of the “activistas” have
resources, symbolic, cultural and otherwise that enable them to negotiate stigmatization.
Activists have been subjected to informal methods of social control that range from hate
speech, gossip, reprisal, death threats, and physical harassment. The strength of the
Convention