“A rapist in your way”, the Chilean performance that became the anthem against gender violence in several cities around the world

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(CNN Spanish) - A group of women sing and dance a sticky chorus:

And it wasn't my fault, where I was or how I dressed
And it wasn't my fault, where I was or how I dressed
And it wasn't my fault, where I was or how I dressed
And it wasn't my fault, where I was or how I dressed

The rapist was you (x2)

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Excerpt from the intervention A VIOLATOR ON YOUR WAY carried out today in various points of Santiago. Thank you very much to all of you who accompanied us today 🖤 from the port we embrace you and carry in our hearts ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️ * special thanks to those who also traveled from Valparaíso, they are the best !!

A post shared by collective LASTESIS (@lastesis) on Nov 25, 2019 at 5:18 pm PST

The scene has been repeated in several cities around the world, from Valparaíso, Chile, where this performance was born, passing through Santiago, Bogotá, Madrid, Barcelona, ​​Paris, Sydney. "A rapist in your path" has become a feminist anthem to denounce gender violence worldwide.

They denounce gender violence

Dafne Valdés, Paula Cometa, Sibila Sotomayor and Lea Cáceres, the four 31 years old, are originally from Valparaíso, Chile, and are the creators of A rapist in your path. Through this song they seek to denounce the macho violence that, according to them, passes through all the states of the State.

Patriarchy is a judge
who judges us to be born,
and our punishment
It's the violence you don't see

As they told the Chilean media Interference, their intention was to bring “feminist theories to a scenic format in a simple, simple and sticky way” so that the message of different feminist theorists reached more people.

The Theses point “to different institutions that are part of this, to which the media that again blame the victim are added, they give the screen to say, in some way, they deserved it, they looked for it because it was dressed in such a way, because she was drunk or because she had psychological problems, ”Sotomayor told Interference.

Las Tesis, the Chilean feminist collective that created the performance “A rapist in your path”.

And they succeeded.

The first intervention they made was in Valparaíso on November 20, an event attended by dozens of women, as recorded in their social networks. Then, this time in Santiago, the capital of Chile, The Theses called for the 25th of that month regarding the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. On that occasion many more women joined and denounced feminicide, impunity for women murderers, disappearance and rape, through this song.

After the success of this mobilization, where the interventions had already gained more strength in social networks, the group called for groups of women on November 29 to make an intervention with this song from their territories, incorporating their own elements.

Women wearing bandages on their eyes are part of a mobilization against feminicide and sexual violence on the Trocadero esplanade, in Paris, inspired by the Chilean feminist group Las Tesis, on November 29, 2019. (Credit: GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP via Getty Images)

This was the result:

#LasTesis #ElVioladorEresTu all over the world! ✊✊

#UnVioladorEnTuCamino #ElVioladorEresTu #paris #ChileProtests #chile #ChileDesperto #ChileResiste #berlin #NewYork #madrid #bogota #mexico #london #santiago #chili #globalrevolution pic.twitter.com/tdCDeV6y32

- Cerveaux not available (@CerveauxNon) November 30, 2019

Impressive intervention of #Lastesis in Plaza Dignidad👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/eRFawbgjl3

- Benjamin G (@b_galvezc) November 29, 2019

Madrid, Puerta del Sol. A rapist on your way #LasTesis # ElVioladorEresTú 👆🏽 pic.twitter.com/D7zVB0OGiS

- FeMiGrantes (@FeMiGrantxs) November 30, 2019

Sydney - Australia #LasTesis pic.twitter.com/MsHnF112eh

- Otto Más 🐉 (@Otto_Mas) December 1, 2019

🙌🏻 pic.twitter.com/khoLMJm4kt

- Sebastián Lelio (@Slelio) December 1, 2019

As feminists in Paris we are responding to the call made by #LasTesis from Chili to raise our voice against femicides and rape!

The guilty one is not me, my clothes or where I was. The rapist is you, the police, the justice system, the state, the society! 👊 pic.twitter.com/1HROJyGGwm

- dilâra (@DilaraGurcu) November 29, 2019

Figures of violence against women

According to the UN, violence against girls and women "is one of the most widespread, persistent and devastating violations of human rights in today's world." The violence - which manifests itself in a physical, sexual and psychological way - "is hardly reported due to the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators, and the silence, stigmatization and shame suffered by the victims."

Although all women, anywhere in the world can suffer gender violence, the most vulnerable are “older girls and women, women who identify as lesbians, bisexuals, transgender or intersex, migrants and refugees, those of indigenous peoples or ethnic minorities, or women and girls living with HIV and disabilities, and those in humanitarian crises. ”

In the world, one in three women has suffered some type of violence (physical or sexual), mainly by a partner, according to the UN.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, 3,529 women were murdered in 2018 for gender reasons in 25 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the Observatory of Gender Equality of Latin America and the Caribbean (OIG) of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

In the region, the highest rates of feminicide per 100,000 women are in El Salvador (6.8), Honduras (5.1), Bolivia (2.3), Guatemala (2.0) and Dominican Republic (1.9 ), according to ECLAC.

In 2018, in the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados led the list with a feminicide rate of 3.4 per 100,000 women. The figure may be higher in Barbados, according to ECLAC, because in that country it only collects the figures of “intimate” feminicides, that is, those committed by the intimate partner or ex-partner of the victims, says the report.

In “A rapist on your way,” women have also sent a message of strength to girls and women victims of violence.

Sleep easy, innocent girl,
without worrying about the bandit,
that for your sweet and smiling dream
Watch your carabinero lover.

The rapist is you.

For them, with this performance, it is sought to “demystify rape as a personal problem” or that is attributed to the rapist's illness, Sotomayor told the Chilean media. What is sought is to say that "this is a social issue."

Protests in Chile