Brazil and Argentina unite in protest against culture of sexual violence

"Her husband was Eduardo Vázquez, the drummer of Callejeros, one of the most famous rock acts in Argentina. The marriage was far from idyllic. Vázquez physically abused his wife on repeated occasions. Finally, in the middle of a heated discussion, Vázquez threw alcohol at Taddei, grabbed a lighter and set her on fire. Taddei died from the burns caused by his attack 11 days later, unable to relate what had happened to her.

It was hoped that Taddei’s horrific death, in the early hours of 10 February 2010, would be a turning point. Gender violence remained an open secret until the judges in the Taddei case reduced Vázquez’s sentence, ruling that his crime had been committed in a fit of passion. Although a higher court later sentenced Vázquez to life imprisonment, the public outcry was so loud that Congress changed the law to exclude “violent emotion” as an attenuating circumstance in crimes against women.

But the public clamour and the changing of the law had no immediate effect on the number of gender crimes. On the contrary: in the three years after Taddei’s death, 132 women were set on fire by men, half of them dying as a result of the attacks, in what came to be known as the “Wanda Taddei” effect. In the two years before Taddei’s death, there had been only nine reported cases."

read newstory by Uki Goñi and Jonathan Watts

Brazil and Argentina unite in protest against culture of sexual violence | Jonathan Watts and Uki Goñi | Global development | The Guardian