Teodora del Carmen Vásquez

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is del Carmen and the second or maternal family name is Vásquez.

Teodora del Carmen Vásquez (born 1986)[1] is a Salvadoran civil rights activist who campaigns against gender-based violence against women. At the age of 24 and nine months pregnant, she suffered a miscarriage at work, which led to her arrest and conviction.[2][3][4] She is co-founder of the association Mujeres Libres de El Salvador (Spanish for Free Women of El Salvador).

Early life

Del Carmen was born into a rural farming family in the department of Ahuachapán in El Salvador, near the border with Guatemala.[2] Life in this remote region was marked by poverty and a lack of access to basic services.[2] By the age of 24, she had only been able to attend school for four years.[5]

Imprisonment

Before her imprisonment in 2007, del Carmen worked in a school cafeteria in the capital city of San Salvador to provide financial support for her son Ángel Gabriel and her parents.[2] In 2007, Vásquez was in her ninth month of pregnancy. When she went into labor at her workplace three weeks before her due date, she called several times for an ambulance and the police.[5] Nevertheless, she was forced to give birth alone. The child was stillborn, Vásquez lost a lot of blood and fainted. She was arrested and tortured on the same day. She was denied adequate medical care.[6]

No investigation was ever conducted, nor was any evidence ever presented.[7] Her phone, which could have served as evidence of her calls for help, was taken from her.[5] She was sentenced to 30 years in prison for aggravated murder.[7] After eight days, she was transferred from pre-trial detention to prison. She spent three months alone in dark confinement.[6] She was then placed in a cell with 300 other women.[5] While in prison, she was subjected to violence and harassment by other inmates.[6]

During her time in prison, Vasquez recognized the need for a support network.[7] Having only attended school for four years in her life up to that point,[5] she obtained a school qualification while in prison,[6] began reading legal literature, and asked her fellow inmates about their needs. Vasquez began to explore the issues of experiences of violence, life in a patriarchal system, and social discrimination. In 2007, there was no organization dedicated to these issues.[7]

After ten years and seven months, she was released in 2018,[7] thanks to massive international protests[5] by various organizations campaigning for her release.[6] Vásquez was taken in by her family. She had seen her son, who was four years old at the time of her imprisonment, four times during her time in prison.[7] She reports that he was her motivation to persevere.[5] As a result of threats and persecution by pro-life organizations, she received offers of asylum to leave the country, but she wants to fight injustice together with other women. After her release, she began studying.[6]

International support and release

Del Carmen gained international attention after she was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the stillbirth of her child, a sentence that was heavily criticized and cited as an example of El Salvador's extreme abortion laws.[2][3][8] During her imprisonment in Ilopango Women's Prison, del Carmen used her personal fate as a starting point for her activism and became a voice for women's rights.[9][10][4]

After her release in 2018, which was forced by international protests and lack of evidence, she continued her fight.[11][12] In 2018, the year of her release[6] Vásquez sought out fellow activists across the country.[7] Together with 16 other women who had been imprisoned for obstetric emergencies, she founded a women's collective that became the legally constituted organization Mujeres Libres de El Salvador in 2022. Vásquez considers the approval of this organization alone to be progress in social development.[6]

Awards and legacy

In 2018, Vásquez was nominated and awarded the Per Anger Prize for Human Rights by the Swedish section of Amnesty International. The citation read: "Teodora del Carmen Vásquez is being honored for her fight for women's sexual and reproductive health rights in El Salvador [...]. She has transformed personal pain into a force that gives support and hope to many girls and women in her home country. Continuing the fight after ten years in prison is not only extraordinary, it also requires great courage."[5]

The 2021 documentary film Fly so far, tells the story of Teodora del Carmen Vásquez and 16 other women who were imprisoned for obstetric emergencies. In it, they describe their cases and talk about sexual and reproductive rights. The film was initially censored by the government, but was eventually allowed to be shown to people aged 18 and over.[7] By 2022, the film had been shown at almost 60 festivals.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ Lakhani, Nina (2018-02-15). "Salvadoran woman jailed over stillbirth freed after 11 years". The Guardian. Retrieved 2024-05-21.
  2. ^ a b c d e Engelhardt, Franziska (2017-02-02). "Hinter Gittern wegen einer Fehlgeburt" [Behind bars because of a miscarriage]. nzz.ch (in German). Retrieved 2024-05-20.
  3. ^ a b SZ.de/dpa/epd/ees (2017-12-15). "El Savador: Frau nach Totgeburt wegen Mordes verurteilt" [El Salvador: Woman convicted of murder after stillbirth] (in German). sueddeutsche.de. Retrieved 2024-05-20.
  4. ^ a b del Carmen Vásquez, Teodora (2022-11-17). "I Went to Prison for Aggravated Murder After Having a Stillbirth — And I'm Not the Only One". globalcitizen.org. Retrieved 2024-05-20.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Gustafsson Figueroa, Kerstin. "2018: Teodora del Carmen Vásquez". levandehistoria.se (in Swedish). Forum för levande historia. Retrieved 2024-04-12.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sánchez, Erica (2022-11-17). "Fui a la cárcel por una emergencia obstétrica y ahora lucho por los derechos de las mujeres para que mi historia no se repita" [I went to jail for an obstetric emergency, and now I fight for women's rights so that my story is not repeated.]. globalcitizen.org (in Spanish). Global Poverty Project. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Pomareda García, Fabiola (2022-12-08). "Todas las mujeres estamos en peligro de ir a la cárcel desde el momento en que concebimos" [All women are at risk of going to prison from the moment we conceive.]. semanariouniversidad.com (in Spanish). Semanario Universidad. Retrieved 2024-04-10.
  8. ^ "Vergewaltigungsopfer vom Vorwurf versuchter Abtreibung freigesprochen" [Rape victim acquitted of attempted abortion charges]. Spiegel Online. 2018-12-18. Retrieved 2024-05-20.
  9. ^ "2018: Teodora del Carmen Vásquez". levandehistoria.se. Retrieved 2024-05-20.
  10. ^ "Teodora del Carmen Vásquez - Movies that Matter". moviesthatmatter.nl. 2021-03-17. Retrieved 2024-05-20.
  11. ^ Lakhani, Nina (2018-02-15). "Salvadoran woman jailed over stillbirth freed after 11 years". theguardian.com. Retrieved 2024-05-20.
  12. ^ "El Salvador baby death: Teodora Vásquez freed after 9 years". bbc.com. 2018-02-15. Retrieved 2024-05-20.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.