“Ten years after the first blow I was elected to the European Parliament.”
Eva-Britt, Växjö, Sweden

The Psychologists

“When I started working I was naive, and my aim was to have families reunited.”


Who:
Elena Zolotilova and Tatiana Pavlova
What: Fighting to open the city’s first women’s shelter.


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 Women’s House

“We give all the women a make-over; it helps them feel that they have become a new person.”


Who:
Sin Violencia
What: Takes in women from around 40 women’s shelters all over Mexico.


The Radio Presenter

“The media are hugely important because what we don’t show doesn’t exist.” 


Who:
Martha Gomez
What: Journalist who for the last seven years has been broadcasting Tolerancia Cero (“Zero Tolerance”) a radio programme about violence against women.


The Teacher

“If someone wants to murder me, they will.”  


Who:
Marisela Ortiz Rivera
What: Leads the association “Give us back our daughters”, at the risk of her life.


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 Police Commissioner

“The turning point was 2004, with the new law on violence in the home. Violence against women was no longer a private matter.”


Who
: Adolfina Prieto
What: Heads LIBRA, the special police unit which combats violence against women and also offers survival courses to women who have lived with a dangerous man.


The Inspiration For A Law

The number of cases reported to the police is growing by the day.”


Who:
Maria Da Penha
What:
Brazil’s new law on violence against women bears her name. She herself runs an institute to spread information about the law.


The Conversation Group

“If he beats me I’ll leave him – or will I?”


Who:
Lise-Lotte Nielsen and Ann-Margret Fick
What:
Social workers who lead conversation groups for abused women, organised by the social services.


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 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.