International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women
The "UNITED STATES OF THE WORLD" with its autonomous sections "MEDITERRANEAN FOUNDATION" and "KIMIYYA" celebrate in various countries, as they do every year on 25 November, the "International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women" formalised by the United Nations in 1999.
"The date of 25 November," emphasises Secretary-General Michele Capasso, "was chosen to commemorate the life, activism and above all the courage of three sisters: Patria, Maria Teresa and Minerva Mirabal, also nicknamed 'mariposas', or butterflies, who fought for the freedom of their country: the Dominican Republic, which during the 1940s and 1950s was in the grip of General Rafael Trujilo's dictatorship. The Mirabal sisters decided to engage in political activism by denouncing the horrors and crimes of the dictatorship. But on 25 November 1960, the three 'mariposas' sisters were tortured and murdered by Trujillo's assassins. The outrage at their deaths raised a wave of horror both at home and abroad, drawing international attention to the Dominican regime and the 'machismo' culture that did not tolerate women occupying public and political space. It is in the memory of Patria, Maria Teresa and Minerva that every 25 November marks the beginning of a 16-day period dedicated to activism against gender-based violence, which ends on 10 December with International Human Rights Day”.
In this year, ravaged by wars and extreme events, the 'UNITED STATES OF THE WORLD' calls on everyone to 'pull together' to ensure respect for women's human dignity and, above all, to prevent the feminicides that infest all societies.