November 25 is not a day to celebrate. Quite the contrary. I wish we could remove it from our calendar now. The International Day Against Violence Against Women is an instrument of awareness, tribute, recognition and above all, commitment.
At EL ESPAÑOL, through Magas, we decided promote this section which responds to our vision of the tragedies of gender murders in our country. “The Lives of the Victims” was and will be a work dedicated to honoring the memory of women who were fatal victims of gender violence in Spain.
This is an unhurried approach, which renunciation of the urgency of the current situation in exchange for the calm needed to catch your breath and draw a portrait tribute to the murdered woman, and it more than deserves to be an ordinal number in the annual list.
Therefore, we will transcend the cold facts of his murder, to reduce his story to the brutal facts that define the crime that ended his life. Our approach seeks to save their humanity, their passions, their dreams and everything that defined his life.
We will take into consideration the principles of “White paper on communication on gender violence”which invites us to recount these events from a perspective of respect, dignity and humanity.
For many years, across the board, violence experts and communicators have stressed the importance of not re-victimizing women, of not focusing only on the tragedy that struck them, but on the richness of their life, their personality, their tastes, their projects and the little things that made them unique and loved.
intimate portrait
Through this section, We wish to offer an intimate and close tribute which does not tell how they died, but who they were: what they were passionate about, what they devoted their free time to, how they managed to overcome bad times, what music made them sing and dance when they were alone, what were their favorite places, what books filled their shelves, what series had made them addicted, what dreams they harbored for the future.
We will try to tell the best of themthe laughs they shared with their friends, the favorite meals they prepared or enjoyed being cooked for or eating at the local bar. Also this creative side that they could show or that they kept to themselves.
We will strive to build an honest and faithful portrait of each womanby consulting those closest to him, those who shared his daily life, so that they can guide us all in the story. We want them to be proud of this article that they themselves would have liked to read if a murderer had not ended their lives.
We want that when someone reads the texts in this section, not only see the event that ended her life, but perceive the complexity and richness of the murdered womenbecause they are not just a number in a tally. Each of them is a life taken with intolerable cruelty.
This approach also helps to increase social awareness, touching the hearts and empathy of our readers. When we tell their stories from this human and deeply caring angle, we promote communication that overcomes morbidity or tragedyand we urge that the desensitization that often accompanies stories of gender-based violence be addressed.
With each portrait we will try to create an emotional bridge between society and the murdered women, because behind each murder there is a person with a story worth telling and remembering.
With “The Lives of the Victims”, we not only intend to make the voices of those who can no longer speak for themselves heard, but we make their memory a call to action, to commitment to continue working to eradicate gender-based violence from our society and to overcome the fretisms favored by polarization.
