Jô Ramos lança seu novo livro A Mulher e Seus Direitos na Bienal do livro - 6 de setembro de 2013

Women and Their Rights This book is an attempt to make more well-known the laws, decrees, and documents that affirm and uphold the rights of women. I have chosen this topic after giving many lectures in a number of communities through the country and having witnessed that misinformation about women’s rights is still widespread. The authorities’ indifference in publicizing the rights that women have achieved is simply an outrage in a country in which once every two hours, a woman is murdered. This book is dedicated to Malala Yousafzai, a woman who has fought for the right of girls to attend school in her country, Pakistan. I begin this book with the Carta das Mulheres, which I consider to be the most important document in the struggle for women’s rights at a Congressional level. This document was drafted by women from across the nation and was organized by the National Council for Women’s Rights, which was created in August 1985. This letter from the Women of Brazil addressed to the Legislative Body was delivered to the President of the Congress, Ulisses Guimarães, in 1987. The document contains a number of demands formed by the Brazilian feminist movement, the most salient of which are: the proposal for rights for domestic workers, the increase of maternity leave to four months, the right for women in prison to breastfeed their babies, the right for land ownership in rural territory for women, independent of their marital status, and the active denouncement of gender discrimination in the workplace. The book pays homage to pioneers in the struggle for black women’s right such as Maria Firmina dos Reis (1825-1917) from the state of Maranhão, who published “Úrsula”, considered to be the first abolitionist book published by a Brazilian women, and Antonieta de Barros (1901-1952), a black journalist, educator, and writer, and the first woman elected to the Legislative Assembly of Santa Catarina. Much has improved with the march of time, but we still have nothing to celebrate. We remain in an uncomfortable position face to face with violence, rights in the workplace, and our own personal rights, which are not always respected. We remain invisible to the State. There is no better phrase to define the struggle for individual rights around the world than “Rights must be acquired”. One does not receive them, but must fight to gain them. Author: Jô Ramos