Brazil Gang Rape Posted on Social Media

Femicide is an international crisis that urgently needs attention.

May 28, 2016

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TRIGGER WARNING: This post contains graphic details about a particularly horrifying incidence of sexual assault.

Over 30 men are suspected of drugging and raping a 16-year-old girl, before a video of the attack was posted on social media. (If this sounds horrifyingly familiar, perhaps you're thinking of the far-too-similar story from 2012, when a young woman known as Nirbhaya was gang raped on a bus.)

The rape took place in Rio de Janiero, and Brazil is reeling from the aftermath, much like India before it. According to local paper Folha De S.Paulo, a 40-second video began circulating, in addition to a photo of the girl's wounded genitalia, with the caption, "They knocked her out, understand? Hahaha." Now, the community is responding with tweets hashtagged #EstuproNuncaMais, which means "rape never again."

It's not the first time the country has seen such a jarring sexual violence. Back in 2015, four girls were tied up, raped, and stoned, before being thrown off a cliff.

From Folha De S. Paulo:

They were tied up and then repeatedly raped. They were beaten with fists, strangled and thrown off a cliff. The criminals also threw stones at the girls. They were found unconscious, half-naked and covered in blood and bruises.

According to the BBC, "47,636 rapes were reported to the police in 2014," and yet "it is estimated only 35% of rape cases are reported."

In light of this more recent incident, a group of journalists created a cartoon to condemn the culture which has created such a dangerous climate. The image features citizens wearing devil horns, with speech bubbles featuring victim-blaming, such as, "But look at her clothes," "She deserved it," "16 years old and already has a son," and "Apparently she was on drugs."

If Nirbhaya's attack is any indication, it will take quite some time for Brazil to wrap its head around much-needed initiatives for rape prevention. And while details of the incident are still rather foggy, it's clearer than ever that we are dealing with an epidemic of rape culture that plagues the world over.

From the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality, here are some particularly chilling femicide statistics from around the globe:

In Guatemala, two women are murdered, on average, each day.
In India, 8,093 cases of dowry-related death were reported in 2007; an unknown number of murders of women and young girls were falsely labeled ‘suicides’ or ‘accidents’.
In Australia, Canada, Israel, South Africa and the United States, between 40 and 70 percent of female murder victims were killed by their intimate partners.
In the State of Chihuahua, Mexico, 66 percent of murders of women were committed by husbands, boyfriends or other family members.

To begin to address some of these issues closer to home, Teen Vogue created a collection of videos meant to spread the message that it is #NotYourFault. Watch the series below.