The term femicide

There have been several reports of the word femicide. A lot of people considered it wrong, while others rushed to disprove them.

The word femicide has been defined by the World Health Organization, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, but also by other organizations, etc. However, the first definition of this term appeared in 1976, when it was first used by the criminologist Dianna E. Russell.

The term was used in the first International Tribunal for Crimes Against Women in Brussels. On her website, she states that: Examples of femicide include the stoning to death of females, murders of females for so-called "honor, rape-murders, murders of women and girls by their spouses/partners.

87,000 women were murdered worldwide in 2017, 58% were committed by (former or current) spouses or partners or family members, according to new data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Worldwide, the five countries with the highest rates of female homicide today are Argentina, El Salvador, India, Honduras, and Mexico, while high rates are also recorded in Guatemala, Colombia, Brazil, Russia, and South Africa.

Argentina defined the term "femicide" as a legal term in 2016 after three unknown men raped, murdered, and "fought" a minor student, and then tens of thousands of women protested in the country's streets.

As a term it exists. As a practice, it exists too. The issue is raising public awareness that the term exists, and it should not be hidden behind the legal terms "passion crimes". Did you know about the term femicide?

Via: @diotima_center 📸: @sotirisbougas