Behind prison walls, violence against women is often ignored in Argentina

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Behind prison walls, violence against women is often ignored in Argentina

19 December 2014

The rights of women in Argentinian prisons, where gender inequality, violence and exclusion can flourish, are systematically violated. Gender violence behind bars can often result in attacks on a woman's body.

A study done by Procuración Penitenciaria de la Nacion in Argentina found institutional violence is an increasing problem in jail, given that the number of woman in jail has increased. Several studies examining the situation in which they live have shown that not much is being done to protect women's rights there.

Comunicar igualdad is an Argentine civil organization which focuses on expanding gender issues in the media as an strategy to obtain an equitable society. In a post titled “Woman in Jail“, it analyzed different cases of violence against woman deprived on freedom.

According to the blog Women and prison, prison affects women in a different way than men – since the number of woman in prison is much lower than men, prison facilities for them lack amenities such as sports and leisure activities. Women also endure the lack of contact with their families, the abandonment of their partners, and poor health care. At the same time, if they are foreign they face irregularities such as peculium payment due to the fact of taxing situation.

The lack of interpreters is another problem facing foreign women imprisoned in Argentina. Reyna Maraz, a Bolivian citizen living in the country who doesn't speak Spanish, only Quechua, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of her husband, after three years in jail without being allowed to appear before a judge or having access to an interpreter.

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