http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/254670
Posted May 13, 2008 by KJ Mullins

Mexico's Macho Culture Hinders Putting A Stop To Domestic Violence


5050 open deomcracy
covered in shame
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Last year Mexico passed a law requiring women to be protected in cases of domestic violence. The feedback though shows a nation that hasn't changed from the thought of being a man's world.

"We are enormously concerned about complaints that the justice system isn't working," Emilio Alvarez Icaza , the president of the commission, told Mexico City's legislators during his April 24 presentation of the report.


Mexico has come some ways into offering women protections though. A few years ago killing a cow was treated more harshly than killing a woman. Still in a nation where a rapist can get away with his crimes by saying he was seeking to satisfy an erotic fantasy Mexico has a long ways to go to improve the rights of women.

Just by changing the laws the nation have not done enough until those laws are kept. Allowing abusive husbands to get away with hurting their wives the nation has shown women that they are not as valuable as the men of the nation.

"They say, 'You're going to forgive your husband, aren't you?' " Marisela Contreras Julian , president of the Commission on Fairness and Gender in Mexico's lower house of Congress said. "It's the culture. ...And some of these men are abusers themselves. Therefore, they look for a way to justify the actions."


Domestic violence does not end until society focuses on the need to stop it in its tracks. Empowering women to be able to leave a bad situation won't take place in Mexico until all women are treated as a valuable portion of society.