Terrorizing Women : Feminicide in the Americas

"The writing here is . . . often urgent and disturbing. It always conveys the message that export-led economic development strategies and neoliberal restructuring plans, privatized police and justice systems, and the cultural and practical legacies from civil war and military dictatorship produce gendered perpetrators, victims, and cultures of impunity. Recommended." -- L. D. Brush, Choice "Fregoso and Bejarano seek to introduce a human rights framework to our understanding of misogynistic murders. . . . The book makes the point that feminicide must be analysed within local and global networks of complicity. . . . The great value I see in this book is that it extends the conversation about femicide/feminicide beyond Mexico and into the rest of the Americas." -- Alicia Gaspar de Alba * Times Higher Education Supplement * "[T]he range of Latin American and trans-border authors and disciplinary perspectives . . . combine to convey a sense of informed and urgent feminist debate. If one insight can be distilled from the case studies and scholarly analyses, it comes from Julia Huamanahui. As her brother-in-law rapes her he gloats: `Even if you scream, no one will hear you'. Years later, abandoning hope of legal recourse for her pregnant sister's brutal murder, for which the husband is the only suspect, Julia concludes: `I think that for a person who is poor, there is no justice'. This book offers some possible alternatives to such lonely terror." -- Deborah Eade * Gender and Development * "Terrorizing Women is a timely and essential read for people concerned about gender violence in intersection with multiple forms of injustice. Scholars, activists, legal experts and relatives of women murdered or disappeared expose feminicide as a complexly-layered social problem that demands urgent action. Insightful conceptual introductions by editors Rosa-Linda Fregoso and Cynthia Bejarano, and by feminist activist/academic/politician Marcela Lagarde y de los Rios, are followed by useful analyses and concrete suggestions aimed at stopping feminicide and advancing justice." -- Barbara Sutton * International Feminist Journal of Politics * ". . . Terrorizing Women is a vivid account of the complex interrelations between multiple factors that permit and encourage feminicide. By showing the enormity and deep roots of the problem of violence against women in Latin America, Terrorizing Women also allows readers to understand why feminicide has continued virtually unchecked for decades." -- Laura Jennings * Social Forces * "This one-of-a-kind book presents a collaborative hemispheric conversation among feminists responding to a crisis of overwhelming importance. It is a call to action from the field, a provocation for a new kind of knowledge and a new kind of activism. It is a book about history that will itself make history."-George Lipsitz, author of American Studies in a Moment of Danger "The concerted emergence of feminicidio finally traces the deep hollow of an absent international crime and a silent human rights violation. Now, fundamental inquiries must surface. Should the Genocide Convention be re-drafted to suppress, pursue, and punish feminicidio? Isn't a peace that is only defined by the cessation of armed conflict one that can tolerate feminicidio? Isn't securing transitional justice a perpetual `State' for females? The authors' piercingly astute observations disintegrate illusory historical, geographical, political, and sexual frontiers that confine us and assign us `partial human rights status.' Yes, we rise to your siren."-Patricia Sellers, former legal advisor for gender-related crimes, Office of the Prosecutor, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia "Anyone who is interested in gaining a deeper understanding of gendered violence and the phenomenon of feminicide in Latin America must read Rosa-Linda Fregoso and Cynthia Bejarano's Terrorizing Women. The book's powerful contribution is to bring together the diverse voices of scholars, human rights lawyers, and activists, whose analyses help us better understand the structural and legal norms which give rise to the escalating violence against, and murders of, women."-Karen Musalo, founding director, Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, Hastings College of the Law ". . . Terrorizing Women is a vivid account of the complex interrelations between multiple factors that permit and encourage feminicide. By showing the enormity and deep roots of the problem of violence against women in Latin America, Terrorizing Women also allows readers to understand why feminicide has continued virtually unchecked for decades." - Laura Jennings, Social Forces "The writing here is . . . often urgent and disturbing. It always conveys the message that export-led economic development strategies and neoliberal restructuring plans, privatized police and justice systems, and the cultural and practical legacies from civil war and military dictatorship produce gendered perpetrators, victims, and cultures of impunity. Recommended." - L. D. Brush, Choice "[T]he range of Latin American and trans-border authors and disciplinary perspectives . . . combine to convey a sense of informed and urgent feminist debate. If one insight can be distilled from the case studies and scholarly analyses, it comes from Julia Huamanahui. As her brother-in-law rapes her he gloats: `Even if you scream, no one will hear you'. Years later, abandoning hope of legal recourse for her pregnant sister's brutal murder, for which the husband is the only suspect, Julia concludes: `I think that for a person who is poor, there is no justice'. This book offers some possible alternatives to such lonely terror." - Deborah Eade, Gender and Development "Fregoso and Bejarano seek to introduce a human rights framework to our understanding of misogynistic murders. . . . The book makes the point that feminicide must be analysed within local and global networks of complicity. . . . The great value I see in this book is that it extends the conversation about femicide/feminicide beyond Mexico and into the rest of the Americas." - Alicia Gaspar de Alba, Times Higher Education Supplement "Terrorizing Women is a timely and essential read for people concerned about gender violence in intersection with multiple forms of injustice. Scholars, activists, legal experts and relatives of women murdered or disappeared expose feminicide as a complexly-layered social problem that demands urgent action. Insightful conceptual introductions by editors Rosa-Linda Fregoso and Cynthia Bejarano, and by feminist activist/academic/politician Marcela Lagarde y de los Rios, are followed by useful analyses and concrete suggestions aimed at stopping feminicide and advancing justice." - Barbara Sutton, International Feminist Journal of Politics