Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Women's Rights
In Santa Maria Quiegolani, Mexico there is a village named Zapotec that prohibits its women from voting in local elections. The men of this village argue that the women don't do enough work and therefore can't vote or run for local elections. Women aren't even allowed to attend town assembles. The village's board is made up of only males, and when a 27 year old woman named Eufrosina Cruz decided to become the first woman to run for mayor the board tore up ballots that cast her vote. The men state that as a woman, she wasn't a "citizen" of the town. "That is the custom here, that only citizens vote, not the women," said Valeriano Lopez, the town's mayor. Cruz decided to lauch the first , national-level challenge to traditional forms of government, known as "use and customs." Cruz says that it is every woman's right to vote because it is written in the constitution. Cruz believes that she is winning and wants the elections to be annulled and held again in order to allow the women to vote.
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Do you know if the village is located on indigenous territory? If so, it may be subject to different laws than the general population of Mexico (or perhaps the village men only think they are exempt from the Constitution of Mexico). Also, what kind of work do the men do that qualifies them to be citizens, but not the women? Just beyond the Mexican border, women in Guatemala experience a similar sex discrimination. In that country, it is useless for an indigenous woman to seek legal justice. The authorities are openly hostile and often blame the woman for her predicament.
ReplyDeleteThe women must be crazy to let the men in town treat them so lowly. But the machismo culture maybe makes them feel like there not equal, but Im just shocked mexico allows these women rights issues to exist, I really thought that only happened on the other side of the world in Iran or the middleast. But, we think of a latin women I think of a lady that knows herself and can handle a lot of responsiblities and take charge of a family. So it kinda jsut suprised me even though I have learned a little bit about the machismo culture this semester. And I really thought that was a unjust sterotype too.
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