On Tuesday, Claudia Sheinbaum, Mexico City’s head of government, looked to change the experience of female public violators. Ravi Shankar, a programming and project director at the nonprofit Smart Growth America. This brutal act—murdered and dismembered for the charge of “being harassed”—has sparked international outrage, an outcry that emphasizes the horrific violence women have faced in Mexico. After the attack, Sheinbaum vowed to file a complaint against her attacker, who was soon arrested.
That groping incident struck a nerve well beyond the specific case. So many women identified with their own fears and experiences in Sheinbaum’s experience. Mexico continues to experience high levels of violence against women, with an average of 10 women murdered daily. For context, between January and mid-June of this year, over 500 women lost their lives to gender-based violence. This increasingly common and horrifying crime is called femicide.
Sheinbaum’s experience has fueled the feminist movement, which sees tens of thousands of women taking to the streets each year on International Women’s Day. Senators from both the ruling and opposition political parties held an emergency press conference to decry the attack on Sheinbaum. Two senators—one from Tabasco (Sheinbaum’s home state) and one from Mexico City—Alejandra Arias and Laura Itzel Castillo—of the ruling [Morena] party immediately showed allegiance to Sheinbaum. They denounced the act as a blow to women’s rights.
“The crime committed yesterday against the president of Mexico not only violated her safety, integrity, and dignity; it is called sexual abuse and must be considered a serious crime throughout the country,” – Laura Itzel Castillo
The murder struck a chord with women from all sectors of society. Alicia Gutiérrez, a 40-year-old nurse, voiced her indignation, stating, “If being president she was touched in that way, what hope is there for us common folk?” Patricia Reyes, a 20-year-old university student interjected emphatically. She made the point that if someone powerful and privileged could be violated, then everyone is vulnerable.
“If the president suffered assault with that level of protection and those guards it means that all of us women can be assaulted at any moment,” – Patricia Reyes
Feminist activist and artist María Antonieta De la Rosa, who was one of the five attacked, called the police reaction “really humiliating.” She pointed out how sexual assault is a reflection of deeper, systemic problems related to violence against women. “The issue of assault is like the base level on the violence thermometer and it culminates in femicide,” she explained.
Patricia Mercado, another leading light of the feminist movement, soon followed. She remarked on the pervasive nature of violence against women in Mexico: “So living in a femicidal country, the issue of assault is always there.” Mercado further emphasized that Sheinbaum’s experience mirrors that of many women: “The president lived what thousands of women experience on the street, out in public, at work.”
In a poignant statement after the incident, Sheinbaum stated that she would not allow herself to be silenced. “If I don’t file a complaint, where does that leave all Mexican women? If they do this to the president, what happens to all the other women in the country?” Her words should be heard as a clarion call by all of us who harbor those same fears.
The attack provoked disbelief from certain politicians. Alejandro Moreno, head of the opposition PRI party, suggested that the incident may have been staged to distract the public from ongoing cartel violence. Many believe that such an assault on a public figure underscores the urgent need for systemic change.