OPINION: Panama’s  machismo legacy

The statistics of violence against women and all forms of abuse, insults and psychological and emotional threats for reasons of gender are increasing. From January to July 2018, 11 femicides had been reported, while for the same period of 2019 the terrible number reached 13 women victims of violence by someone close to their environment. Countless cases of sexual violence, domestic abuse and other forms of oppression of girls, adolescents and adult women are hidden in shame, what they will say and absurd beliefs, such as the one that says “that in a fight between husband and wife nobody interferes”. Two decades have passed since the first regulations on this subject were approved with a preventive orientation, however, neither the budget nor the human resources to turn those laws into reality are available. Today more than ever we face a crisis of masculinity. A patriarchal society refuses to recognize that the way in which children, adolescents and adult males are educated, mistreated and deformed, and rewards violence as part of the machismo creed. All, men and women lose their humanity for this.- LA PRENSA, Jul 15