On 3 June 2015, tens of thousands of people gathered in the capital, Buenos Aires, and in dozens of cities and towns demanding an end to violence against women. There were demonstrations in Chile and Uruguay in solidarity too.
Argentina was reporting a female murder rate of one every 31 hours. The killing of a 14-year-old pregnant girl by her boyfriend was seen as a tipping point.
Something had to be done. A collective of female journalists and writers campaigned under the banner ‘Ni Una Menos’ (not one less) and received support on social media from footballer Lionel Messi and Argentina’s president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
Changes to the law on abortion and the representation of women in governance followed. Agustina Paz Frontera who was part of the collective that started the movement tells Josephine McDermott it was the disappearance of her school friend in 2005 that spurred her on.
Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more. Recent episodes explore everything from the death of Adolf Hitler, the first spacewalk and the making of the movie Jaws, to celebrity tortoise Lonesome George, the Kobe earthquake and the invention of superglue. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: Eva Peron – Argentina’s Evita; President Ronald Reagan and his famous ‘tear down this wall’ speech; Thomas Keneally on why he wrote Schindler’s List; and Jacques Derrida, France’s ‘rock star’ philosopher. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the civil rights swimming protest; the disastrous D-Day rehearsal; and the death of one of the world’s oldest languages.
(Photo: Agustina Paz Frontera. Credit: Ana Masiello)