“Every 11 minutes, a woman is being raped,” read a shirt worn by Brazilian football team El Cruzeiro on International Women’s Day on March 8.
The team wore T-shirts highlighting the many issues that women in the South American country still face on a daily basis.
Other slogans on the shirts included, “Women work three more times than men at home” and “one woman dies every two hours”. Another noted that Brazil was listed fifth in femicides around the world. The goal keeper’s shirt pointed out that women only represent 12% of the country's mayors.
The Belo Horizonte-based club collaborated with the state human rights agency on the official statistics to raise awareness about the plight of women.
“El Cruzeiro has participated in various campaigns against all kinds of prejudices,” said the club's President Gilvan de Pinho Tavares in a statement. “In the 21st century, seeing women victims of violence and discrimination is unacceptable.”
A similar initiative was announced by the Costa Rican football league. On March 8, players will not celebrate goals scored as part of a campaign meant to express solidarity with women victims of violence.
The campaign #AunNoHayNadaQueCelebrar, or “There's still nothing to celebrate” in English, equipped the players with black T-shirts showing the national statistics on gender violence and gender inequality at the beginning of each match.
[Reprinted from TeleSUR English.]
Like the article? Subscribe to Green Left now! You can also like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.