:quality(85)//cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/infobae/NWRJWUWXUFHEVJR22EMSKB2OGU.webp "How gender violence is experienced from prison and how it is fought 1")
The book has just been published “You accuse the woman for no reason”a collective work (Daniela Ancira, Raquel Aguirre, Mercedes Becker and Wendy Balcazar) in which 10 testimonies of women deprived of their freedom in different prisons in Mexico are reflected. To obtain these stories, it took seven years of research work through the foundation At Canaa CA that is dedicated to providing the women the tools needed to achieve real equality during their stay in prison and upon their release.
These testimonies describe different types of violence against women from all the trenches: family, community and statewhere gender roles, social stigmas, the misrepresentation of romantic love, and selfless motherhood are the factors that remain constant in the stories this book tells.
Regarding the conservation of the text, it must be recognized that the final product can be improved; however, what makes this a worthless read is the heart of the stories told in it and the social environment which explains how women they arrive in prison and how they face the world after the end of their sentence.
“The book reflects the structural gender violence that women experience before arriving in prison, at the time of being judged, during the prison period and upon their release”
For him, GlobeLiveMedia Mexico contacted Daniela Ancira and Raquel Aguirretwo of the four authors of the book to discuss its creation, what does it have to do with At Cana in the creation of said material, what is your proposal and what do you expect from the future of women deprived of liberty in Mexico.
The interview was given in a dynamic way, the two lawyers were able to provide a broad and structural vision of the stories they were complicating and, through the book, they decided to highlight these cases because they are convinced that whatever either the social class to which they belong, all women have experienced some type of violence of this nature.
For the microphones of GlobeLiveMedia México, Ancira pointed out that thanks to this survey, a situation of prejudice against women can be revealed, which is “legitimized” by the type of education that is promoted in Mexico; in this direction, pointed out that breaking with this type of stigma is extremely complexbecause full support is necessary to achieve this effectively.
“It’s very easy to judge a woman of ‘oh why didn’t she leave this partner if she knew he was a kidnapper, a criminal, why didn’t she leave him’ or why, despite the fact that he beat her, she stayed with him”
It is at this point that Aguirre wonders about the values that are instilled in girls from birth: romantic love, selfless motherhoodeconomic dependence on the couple and submission to what the man of the house says:
“A woman is made for the home, to take care of the children, to fulfill this role of companion and mother and for nothing else”
This is where La Cana comes in, because in addition to being the mechanism by which the testimonies were collected, they offer a program of three essential axes to achieve integral social reintegration:
1. economic independence (Training in a job and IT).
2. mental health (therapy for them and their families).
3. education (art, culture and sport).
The objective is that they leave with the tools that they did not have in freedom and, in this way, guarantee their permanence in the streets as free women, for which they also have a follow-up program with good results, since national criminal recidivism is 20%, while girls who received help from La Cana are 2%. In fact, their results are compelling:
– 256 women trained in new professions.
– 81.31% of women have increased their professional skills needed to get a job.
– 20.96% of women trained were hired by La Cana.
– 259 women hired by La Cana inside the prison.
– 44 women beneficiaries of the “Suivi en Liberté” program.
– 26 women released.
Note that La Cana is also dedicated to teaching inmates the techniques of knitting, embroidery, sewing, macrame and textile weaving, with which they make products that can be purchased on their website. They also highlighted that the proceeds help women deprived of their liberty, and to date they have sold over 23,000 items.
Finally, the lawyers agreed that the idea of “penal populism” (severe penalties or qualification of new crimes) and a new legal framework must be defined which judge with a gender perspective and that the State pays attention to the conditions of prisons in Mexico, this to achieve real rehabilitation for those who want to break the circles of violence.