Spreading the News

"Women and Conflict lecture apart of UNCG's Harriet Elliot Lecture Series" this was a lecture that my friend went to on March 25 and now I wish I had gone because she learned about a world event that ironically needs to become more worldly.

A little brief on what the lecture was about:
Barbara Martinez Jitner created a documentary, La Frontera, about the femicide occurring near the United Startes border. Over four-hundred seventy-five young girls have been raped and killed. Most of these women were employees of American factories, and not one of these crimes have ever brought a perpetrator to justice. Over five-thousand girls have disappeared. Clips of Barbara Jitner's documentary, La Frontera, and through listening to Jitner's experience at the border, a disturbing gender-specific genocide or 'femicide' as Jitner describes it has been revealed. So basically these women are working for $5.00 a day even when they are in danger of rape, sexual harassment and even murder. News hasn't gotten out as much because there is no way of identifying the missing girls. One of the chief leaders was quoted: "How can you murder someone who doesn't exist". This shocking realization has brought even more attention to the situation.

I was so shocked with what she was telling me. I had no idea things like this were going on so close to the border and I wondered why we never talked about it in our class. This femicide which is facing these Mexican women each day is disturbing and sickening. Why are these conditions being allowed to exist under NAFTA? When will the United States react to these inexcusable conditions? Something has got to change for these women who are just trying to get through this life and do what is best for themselves and their families.