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In memory of three sisters

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the Mirabal Sisters, 25 November, the UN day for the elimination of violence against womenThe 25 November was established in 1999 as the UN day for the elimination of violence against women.

But what is the significance of this date?

And why is it often marked with butterfly logos?

On 25 November 1960, three young women who were political activists in the Dominican Republic, known as the Mirabal Sisters, were killed, it is believed, on the orders of  Rafael Trujillo the dictator who was head of state of the Dominican Republic from 1930-1961.

There were four sisters: Minerva, Maria Teresa, Patria and Dedé. They all married and raised families.

At first Dedé mainly focused on the home and farm as her husband did not support her when she wanted to attend college or take part in political activism, although she joined her sisters later.

Minerva graduated in law, but her path to practicing law was blocked, allegedly after she rejected Trujillo’s sexual advances. She remained politically active and her sisters Maria Teresa and Patria joined her.

Patria was motivated after having witnessed Trujillo’s men commit a massacre on 14 June. This later came to be the name given to their group: “The movement of the Fourteenth of June” – but their codename was Las Mariposas – the butterflies.

They collated and distributed information on torture, disappearances and extra-judicial killings and started stockpiling weapons for when the revolution would take hold.

They and their husbands experienced spells in prison and other harassment.

On 25 November 1960 Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa, along with their driver, were stopped by some members of Trujillo’s secret police force while they were returning from a visit to their husbands who were at that time in prison.

They were beaten and strangled and put back in their vehicle which was then pushed off a mountainside to make it looked as if they had had a car accident.

In 1961, the Mirabal sisters’ awaited revolution kicked off – and Trujillo, one of the most blood-thirsty dictators Latin America has ever known, was ambushed and killed on 30 May 1961.

Dedé – the sister who had not been as politically active – survived Trujillo’s reign and raised her late sisters’ six children. She died in 2014.

The courage of these women, who helped bring freedom and democracy to their country, is now legendary.

In the Dominican Republic, the Mirabal sisters are now national heroines and cities, towns, schools and institutions have been named after them.

The story of the Mirabal sisters has been told numerous times.

Notable American-Dominican author Julia Alvarez wrote about them in her 1994 best-selling novel ‘In the Time of the Butterflies‘. This novel was then the basis for the 2001 film of the same name, starring Salma Hayek, Edward James Olmos and Marc Anthony.

In 2010, Michelle Rodriguez starred in ‘Tropico de Sangre‘, another film depicting the lives of the Dominican heroines.

And in 2009, Chilean film maker Cecilia Domeyko produced a documentary about the Mirabal Sisters, called Code Name: Butterflies, for which she interviewed family, personalities and friends and gives a recount of the lives of the deceased sisters and their movement to restore democracy in the Dominican Republic.

The premise of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women is to raise awareness of the fact that women around the world are subject to rape, domestic violence and other forms of violence; furthermore, one of the aims of the day is to highlight that the scale and true nature of the issue is often hidden.

In 1981, activists marked 25 November as a day to combat and raise awareness of violence against women more broadly; on 17 December 1999, the date received its official United Nations resolution.

The date of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women also marks the start of the “16 Days of Activism” that precede Human Rights Day on 10 December each year.

That date was in turn chosen to honour the United Nations General Assembly‘s adoption and proclamation, on 10 December 1948, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first global enunciation of human rights and one of the first major achievements of the new United Nations.

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