For decades, Mexican women have faced systemic gender-based violence, including abuse, sexual assault, battery and murder. It’s not a recent phenomenon, but with every day that goes by and every new headline about a murdered woman, Mexican society is reckoning with the fact that, on average, 10 women are murdered every day, that justice for these victims is not served and that the state is failing to prevent and prosecute all gender-based violence.

But Mexican women are taking action, creating support networks and taking care of each other even when the authorities refuse to introduce sanctions to eradicate the violence against them. They are protesting on the streets and refusing to remain silent to expose the deadly reality of being a woman in Mexico and to demand justice for those whose lives were cut short.

Mexico is a dangerous place for many people. According to data from non-profit organisation Reporters Without Borders, it’s a dangerous place to be a journalist – the most dangerous it’s been since 2019. Three journalists were killed in three days in early May, raising the number of deaths to 11 in 2022 to date. It is a dangerous place to be alive, considering that more than 100,000 people have disappeared since 1964 and only 35 of those disappearances have led to a conviction. It is also a dangerous and scary place to be a woman.

“Mexican women are facing systemic gender-based violence”: meet the women fighting for change