Woman holding a sign reading ‘Stop killing us,’ during a march in Brasília, Brazil's capital, denouncing violence against women. Photo: Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil. Fair use.
Thousands of women marched in several cities in Brazil over the weekend of November 6 and 7, to deliver a message that violence against women cannot be trivialized and that it is a crisis. The protests were organised under the title “Rise Women Alive” (Levante Mulheres Vivas), and followed a number of high-profile cases that have made the news in the past couple of weeks.
Among them, a social media influencer known for creating “red pill” content (a termcorpo originating from the Matrix movies and symbolizing “awakening” but which has been co-opted by some politically conservative and misogynistic groups), has been arrested for allegedly assaulting his partner and trying to force her to have sex with him. He has denied the accusations.
In São Paulo, a man dragged a woman with his car for one kilometer (0.6 miles), causing the amputation of both her legs. According to the police, the suspect became “enraged” after seeing the woman talking to another man at a bar. Her family and friends said they had dated for a while. The man denied knowing her, despite witnesses claiming to see them arguing at the venue.
In Rio de Janeiro, a public servant shot and killed two women he worked with in a federal education unit, committing suicide right after. The police are investigating whether the case has a misogynistic factor because the attacker did not accept women in higher-ranking positions at the workplace. CBN radio says the crime “could be motivated by misogyny, which is hatred, despise or prejudice against women,” based on accounts from the students’ parents and other people close to the victims.
In Florianópolis, Santa Catarina state, a five-year-old boy stood in front of his mother trying to protect her while his father stabbed her, saving her life. The same city where a 31-year-old woman was raped and killed on a hiking trail she took on her way to a swimming class, in the end of November.
In Brasília, the country’s capital, the charred body of a 25-year-old army corporal was found after a fire in a military unit with a cut on her neck. A 21-year-old soldier confessed to killing her and setting the place on fire after an argument between them.
In São Tomé das Letras, Minas Gerais state, the same day, a 26-year-old woman suffered burns to 60 per cent of her body. After she was taken to a hospital, she told police officers that her boyfriend had thrown gasoline over her and set the fire, also after an argument.
Anthropologist and writer Debora Diniz posted a call to the marches over the weekend on her Instagram profile, adding:
Esse é o paradoxo do nosso tempo bruto contra as mulheres: marchar para garantir o direito à vida. Caminhar para interromper a naturalização do feminicídio. Ocupamos a cidade para lembrar o óbvio: não deveria ser necessário pedir para não morrer.
Marche. E fale desse paradoxo, sem suavizar. Estranhe que a sobrevivência precise de coro, de cartaz, de grito na garganta. Estranhe que tenhamos de gritar para viver — e, ainda assim, grite. Porque cada passo junto desmente o silêncio que tentaram nos impor.
This is the paradox of our brutal time against women: marching to guarantee the right to life. Walking to interrupt the normalization of femicide. We occupy the city to remind the obvious: it shouldn’t be necessary to ask not to die.
March on. And talk about his paradox, without softening it. Find it strange that survival needs a choir, posters, a cry in the throat. Find it strange that we still need to shout to live — and, yet, shout. Because every step together disavows the silence they are trying to impose on us.
Protest on Paulista Avenue, São Paulo, for “Women Alive'’ this November 7, 2025. Photo: Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil. Fair use.
Since 2006, Brazil has had a law aimed at combating gender violence, especially to protect domestic violence victims. It is named after Maria da Penha, a woman who became paraplegic after being shot in the back by her ex-husband while she was sleeping. In 2015, another law, signed by then-president Dilma Rousseff, hardened penalties for the murder of women and girls, adding femicide as a qualifier to homicide in the country’s penal code. This change introduced into the legislation the notion that there were women being killed because of their gender.
Last year, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed another law making femicide a crime of its own, with penalties up to 40 years in prison (it can be increased to 60 years in certain cases) — the Brazilian justice system doesn’t have life imprisonment. After the latest protests, Lula posted a video on his X (former Twitter) account showing the event in Brasília, featuring women ministers from his cabinet and the First Lady Rosângela Janja Lula da Silva, and wrote that “combating femicide is a job for all, especially men.”
Yet, despite these existing laws, the protection of women and girls in the country never seems fully guaranteed, and the number of such crimes is worrisome.
The 2025 annual report of the non-governmental organization Brazilian Forum of Public Security (Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública) showed that, although violent deaths had declined in Brazil, cases of violence against women and children increased.
Data gathered with state systems showed 3,870 victims of attempted femicide — a 19 percent growth compared to the previous year. In 2024, Brazil had 1,492 victims of femicide, a 0.7 percent increase, and the highest number registered since the 2015 law became effective. That means an average of four women are killed for reasons linked to their gender every day. Eight out of 10 were killed by their partners or ex-partners.
‘Women alive! Enough with Femicides,’ says a banner carried in Brasília. Photo by Marcelo Camargo/Agência Brasil. Fair use.
In a chapter analyzing this data in the same report, experts wrote that violence against women remains “one of the biggest challenges faced by Brazilian public policies, in particular in the public security field, either in producing and systematizing data, or in terms of formulating and implementing these public policies, especially preventive ones.” They also gave a warning: “Laws are improving, but violence persists, and women remain at risk. These risks are varied.”
In another report, published in 2023 analyzing numbers from 2022, when “all forms of violence against women had presented a surge,” the Forum noted:
Agressões físicas, ofensas sexuais e abusos psicológicos se tornaram ainda mais frequentes na vida das brasileiras. O assédio sexual, seja no ambiente de trabalho ou no transporte público, atingiu recordes inimagináveis. (…) estamos diante de um crescimento agudo de formas graves de violência física, que podem resultar em morte a qualquer momento.
Physical aggressions, sexual offenses and psychological abuse have become more frequent in the lives of Brazilian women. Sexual harassment, either in the workplace or public transportation, hit unimaginable records. (…) we are facing an acute growth of serious physical violence, which could result in death at any time.
A dire prediction that has since come true for many women. A couple of days before the marches, on November 4, the newspaper Correio Braziliense published an editorial stating:
Os recentes casos de violência de gênero que chegaram ao noticiário nacional não deixam dúvidas da existência de um ódio crescente contra as mulheres no país, confluindo para um cenário de perigosa normalização das atrocidades. Não à toa especialistas alertam para uma prática disseminada de extermínio de mulheres e autoridades ressaltam os riscos da banalização de crimes do tipo. (…)
A inação faz parte da engrenagem que tira a vida das mulheres brasileiras todos os dias. Sem uma mobilização que envolva agentes públicos, a sociedade civil, escolas, igrejas, estudiosos, não se alteram estruturas que sustentam um ciclo prolongado de violência que tem o feminicídio como estágio crônico. A crueldade também está na omissão, e esta, sim, precisa ser extirpada.
Recent cases of gender violence that made national news leave no doubts about the existence of a rampant hatred against women in the country, converging into a scenario of dangerous normalization of atrocities. Not for nothing specialists warn about the widespread practice of exterminating women, and authorities highlight the risks of banalizing such crimes. (…)
The inaction is part of the gear that takes Brazilian women's lives everyday. Without a mobilization involving public agents, civil society, schools, churches, scholars, we cannot change structures that sustain an extended cycle of violence that has femicide at a chronic stage. The cruelty also lies in omission, and this, indeed, must be eradicated.
