The Mothers
“Why didn’t the police show me the whole of my daughter’s body, just a left foot which was sticking out?”
Who: Rosaura Montañez
What: Member of a network of mothers who have lost daughters.
Araceli disappeared on the 30th of June 1995 and was found four days later on a refuse tip on the southern outskirts of the city. She had been raped and strangled. She was 19 years old. No-one has been found guilty of her murder.
The King
“I don’t want my daughter to be a ‘good girl’.”
Who: Kgosi Mabe
What: Uses his position as tribal king to work against violence against women.
Panzi Hospital
“Would a male lion destroy a female lion’s genitals? It’s unthinkable.”
Who: Panzi Hospital
What: Treats survivors of sexual violence and women with severe gynaecological problems.
The Project for Equality
“Damaging women is like killing the roots of the tree.”
Who: Mathilde Muhindo
What: Former parliamentarian who runs a project to promote equality in villages in South Kivu.
The Lawyer
“Sometimes I sit in the courtroom and hold her hand, or stroke her back. I don’t want her to feel she is alone.”
Who: Susanne Croné-Morell
What: Is the victim’s own lawyer – the plaintiff’s lawyer.
The Support Person
“Those four months changed my life.”
Who: Paulina Bengtson
What: Runs Novahuset, a voluntary association which supports victims of sexual assault.
“Actually, I had a feeling straight away that something was wrong. He looked like someone from the Mafia, not at all as gentle as he’d seemed. But I was gullible and ignored my own warning signals. I was used to trusting people.”
The Lawyers
“With armed guards for protection.”
Who: Hina Jilani and Asma Jahangir
What: As lawyers, they pursue questions relating to women’s human rights.
The Statisticians
“Mutilations are the worst.”
Who: Aurat Foundation
What: Create the only statistics on violence against women by reading every word of the country’s newspapers.
The Women’s Shelter
“Several women who have stayed at Dastak have been murdered by their families when they have dared to venture out.”
Who: Dastak shelter
What: Offer protection to women who have been subjected to violence or threats of violence. Lahore’s only private women’s shelter.
The Listeners
“Conversation could do more good than all the medicine in the world.”
Who: CAMPS (Centre D’Assistance Medico–Psychosociale)
What: Gives psychosocial support to families who have been subjected to violence in South Kivu.
The men’s movement
“Violence is about control. It’s the loss of control that triggers violence.”
Who: Alexander Gogolkin
What: Leads M21, which works both for greater gender equality, and with the treatment of violent men.