Thaindian News

Washington, July 12 (IANS) Every day, at least 10 women are killed in domestic violence in Brazil, a government report said.
The government-sponsored study, “Map of Violence 2010″, found that 41,532 women were murdered in Brazil between 1997 and 2007.

But it takes a high-profile incident - the case against a Brazilian footballer who is the prime suspect in the disappearance and murder of his former girlfriend - to bring attention to the problem, Women’s Affairs Minister Nilcea Freire was quoted as saying by CNN.

Brazilians are in shock over the details emerging from the case of Flamengo club goalkeeper Bruno Fernandes, who is accused of overseeing the kidnapping and dismembering of former lover Eliza Samudio, with whom he allegedly fathered a child. Samudio’s body remains missing a month after her disappearance.

“When cases emerge involving famous persons, that’s when society becomes aware of what is not being printed… that women are violated, subjugated daily through inequality,” Freire said.

Samudio had claimed recently, in a television interview, that Fernandes threatened to make her disappear, after refusing to acknowledge the paternity of their son.

Special police stations for women, which handle gender-based cases, also register an exorbitant number of complaints of threats.

A new law will soon be introduced, which allows for an aggressor to be arrested not only for the act of committing a crime, but for its prevention also, the minister said.