In August Lilac, Lula allies with countries dangerous for women

Lula’s approval of the new formation of the Brics bloc, which came to be called the “club of dictatorships”, brings to light, among other problems, one more inconsistency of the PT government. While the Ministry of Women is campaigning for the end of violence against women, to mark Lilac August, Lula is silent about the abuses and risks that women face in most of the six new countries that joined the bloc.

The first to receive praise from Lula was the president of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, leader of a dictatorship marked by an unlimited persecution of women. The best-known case took place about a year ago and, since then, gender violence has only increased. The fact occurred in September 2022, when the Iranian Mahsa Amini was murdered by the moral police of Iran for not wearing the Islamic headscarf in accordance with local legislation.

While passing through Angola, Lula continued in the same vein and announced the elaboration of a joint plan with the African country with several commercial agreements. Angola is the 27th most dangerous country for women, according to the Women Peace and Security Index, carried out by Georgetown University in the United States. The survey is based on security and access to justice for women.

Regarding the dictatorship in Iran, the proximity between Lula and the PT is nothing new. When Ebrahim Raisi was elected in 2021, the Workers’ Party released a note congratulating him on the election. It is worth remembering that, the following year, during the wave of protests over women’s rights after Amini’s death, the Iranian police arrested and killed at least 380 people, according to the NGO Iran Human Rights Watchin addition to hampering telephone and internet services in the country.

In Angola, President Lula pointed out gender inequality in the country when talking about women in politics. But according to data from UN Women, there are even more serious problems that were not mentioned. In 2018, 25% of Angolan women aged between 15 and 49 years reported having suffered physical and/or sexual violence in the last 12 months. The survey also points out that 30.3% of women aged 20 to 24 were married before the age of 18, 8% before the age of 15.

Of the six countries that recently joined the BRICS, three of them – Egypt, Iran and Ethiopia – are among the 60 most dangerous countries for women, also according to the Women Peace and Security Index. Brazil is in the 92nd position of this ranking, which has 170 countries.