Myths and taboos that encourage gender violence and violence in the family scenario prevail and also limit the willingness of victims to denounce it

As a sign of the importance that the country attaches to the issue of prevention of gender violence, the deputies of the Commission of Attention to Youth, Childhood and Equal Rights of Women, of the National Assembly of People’s Power (ANPP), evaluated the results of the actions to verify the Implementation of the Comprehensive Strategy for the Prevention of Gender Violence and in the family scenario.

Deputy Arelys Santana Bello noted that there is a greater understanding of the need to know more about gender violence, the different types of violence and the importance of prevention as a fundamental element to eliminate manifestations of discrimination against people, with special emphasis on women and girls.

At the meeting, which was attended by Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Party and President of the Republic; member of the Political Bureau Teresa Amarelle Boué, general secretary of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), and Inés María Chapman, deputy prime minister, it was learned that, as a result of the evaluation, in 32 municipalities in ten provinces there was an increase in information on this issue, by the national media.

She added that the people who need help, to a greater extent, go to the Women and Family Guidance Centers, to the counseling centers created by the FMC, or to the Attorney General’s Office, but suggested creating other spaces in the popular councils, to bring preventive work closer to the neighborhoods.

Santana Bello highlighted the work of Villa Clara in the prevention of gender violence, with the implementation of the Dialogues of women free of violence, organized by the FMC, and the development of the Process of women’s voices for non-violence, in one hundred communities with high social problems, and in 58 centers with a high concentration of women and students.

The prevalence of myths and taboos that stimulate gender violence and in the family scenario and that, in addition, limit the willingness of victims to denounce, was evidenced, she said.

“This implies the relevance of insisting on information and general culture through all possible channels,” she emphasized.

It was detected that not all the centers visited have a Gender Committee, which can undoubtedly contribute to the implementation of actions for the prevention of gender violence, he said.

The Cuban Head of State, while taking the floor, pointed out that this Strategy does not deny all the achievements reached by the Cuban revolutionary process in terms of women’s rights and prevention of violence.

On the contrary, she argued, it assumes them as an open road with which we must not be satisfied, and on which we must constantly walk to identify and solve dissatisfactions.

“If we want to continue perfecting our country from the socialist construction, we must keep in mind that it is not possible to do so without emancipated women,” she stressed.

This issue was also discussed at the 7th Plenary Session of the Party’s Central Committee and is supported by the Constitution, the Family Code, the National Program for the Advancement of Women, the National Program against Racism and Racial Discrimination, the Penal Code and other regulations, which is consistent with the priority of violence prevention at the country level, he said.

Díaz-Canel pointed out as an achievement the greater presence in the public agenda of the treatment of violence in all its expressions, and that the ways of communicating it are different, since the media refer to advances, dissatisfactions, realities; that is, there is no informative silence on what Cuba does against this scourge.

He denounced that some social platforms manipulate the issue to overshadow the actions deployed, and reconstruct what happens from the misrepresentation.

source: Granma