[kazoo sound]
Women in Chile are taking a stand
against the sexist culture that has seen femicide, sexual abuse
and mistreatment become the norm.
During social unrest in 2019,
the country became the birthplace of this feminist protest anthem:
It became a viral hit, and it was performed around the world.
The song had a global impact.
But now, the struggle for equality back in Chile continues.
Women are speaking out against sexual abuse in universities -
- raising the alarm on unequal treatment in the workplace -
- and even protesting through performance art.
The struggle for equality has lasted decades.
But after months of protests,
people are now hoping to make their mark on a new constitution.
Could this be the moment
women lead the charge in changing the country’s future?
Cheril Linett is the founder of a feminist performance art group.
Her work grapples with the subject of violence against women.
They are writing the names of victims of femicide on each one of these crosses.
Today, she has gathered a collective of mostly women
to recreate the burial of the victims.
They chose this desolate river in Santiago
because it’s the kind of place where women’s bodies are found.
An NGO tracked 64 cases of femicide in 2019.
A year before, the Chilean government received 28,000 reports
of sexual abuse and rape.
And, in 2017, more than half
of survivors were girls younger than 14.
But the reality is that many cases of sexual assault go unreported.
In early 2018, the rape and murder of a toddler
and the gang rape of a young woman lead to massive protests in Chile -
including the March Against Rape Culture,
which brought together tens of thousands of people.
Around the same time, hundreds of students shut down 14 universities.
They demanded justice for survivors of sexual harassment and rape.
One of the most high-profile cases was of law student Sofía Brito,
who filed a sexual harassment complaint against her professor, Carlos Carmona.
The process took several months,
and Carlos Carmona
rejected all allegations.
The university dismissed the sexual harassment complaint and
gave a temporary suspension to Carmona on the basis of “a lack of integrity.”
After the verdict, students responded with protests and university takeovers.
Following months of protests and sit-ins,
Carmona resigned from his job as a professor and left the Constitutional Court.
But the feminist protests are not limited to students.
On March 8 of 2018, women of all ages and backgrounds
participated in a massive feminist general strike and demonstration.
It’s a gathering that happens every year.
And the real engine behind this movement
is made up of local collectives like Pan y Rosas.
Barbara Brito is a member.
Only about 50% of Chilean women have a formal job,
and women get paid about 35% less than men do.
Barbara Brito is a teacher at a public school in Santiago.
She believes there’s still a long way to go
to improve the lives of working-class women.
Babara’s group, Pan y Rosas, took part in the protests of late 2019.
Sexual assaults by security forces
were widely reported during the demonstrations.
In fact, the "Las Tesis" viral feminist song
is a direct response to the government’s violence against women.
In mid-November, after dozens of protesters were killed
and thousands wounded on the streets,
the government agreed to hold a referendum
on Chile’s dictatorship-era constitution.
The vote will take place in April of 2020.
Barbara hopes that the activism of women like her will make a difference.
The military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet
established the current constitution in 1980.
According to Sofia, who specializes in constitutional law,
those laws do not take women into consideration.
Now she's working on the concept of a new, more egalitarian constitution.
Working on the new constitution has become her primary focus in life.