Femicides

Since maquiladoras offer numerous jobs to women, thousands of women have flocked to border cities such as Juarez in search of work.  Women are not valued in these factories or in these towns, and during the last ten years, nearly 10,000 women have been brutally murdered because of their gender.  These murders are only becoming more brutal and frequent in recent years, and are no longer being looked into by the Mexican authorities (Katia Monteagudo).  These killings, kidnappings and missing bodies have been given the name “femicides,” defined by Nidya Sarria as “the systematic killing of women due to their gender.” These disappearances, kidnappings, and murders of women are no longer being seriously investigated as of August 2006,  and Mexican authorities have began blaming the victims for the crimes as well as referring to the femicides as positive because they rid society of “undesirable people” (Wright 713-714)

                                                          Centerforthehumanities.org

            After a woman is reported as missing, or a body is found, authorities are beginning to put a value on the woman’s life, and whether or not she was an asset to society.  Since most women are abducted or killed at night, their lives are deemed insignificant because they are assumed to be prostitutes, and the government no longer wants to waste its time with people who are not an asset to society (Wright 714).  This is inhumane because everyone’s life has value, and the government should arrest the murderers so they do not murder even more people.  This is an extremely unsafe place for women to be working; however, as we have seen poverty makes people desperate.  This is yet another reason that poverty pushes women to cross the border because it is almost worth leaving to get away from such unsafe conditions.  In most of these women’s minds, the dangers during the time it takes to cross the border are nothing compared to the constant dangers of maquiladoras and unsafe cities such as Juarez.