Dec 15, 2019 3 min read

In 1960, three sisters, Patria, Minerva and Maria Teresa Mirabel-Reyes – known as the Mirabal sisters – who had clandestinely worked against the iron-fisted dictatorship of the Dominican Republic by Rafael Trujillo – better known as “El Jefe” – were assassinated on Trujillo’s orders.

Driving home from visiting the jailed husbands of Maria Teresa and Minerva, their car was stopped by several of Trujillo’s thugs, where they were clubbed to death and their bodies put back in their car and run off the road to make it look like an accident.

Subsequently the Mirabal sisters, three women defiant despite the certainty that Trujillo would come after them, became martyrs and symbols of “feminist resistance.”

“We cannot allow our children to grow up in this corrupt and tyrannical regime,” Patria said. “We have to fight against it, and I am willing to give up everything, even my life if necessary.”

After their story spread and women around the world were inspired by their bravery and sacrifice, a movement began to honor them.

So this week in 1999, the U.N. General Assembly officially passed U.N. Resolution 54/134, designating Nov. 25, the anniversary of the Mirabel sisters’ death, as International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, to be observed annually.

The purpose was to raise awareness of the constant violence – including rape, physical harm, subjugation and death – that women suffer around the world, especially in third-world countries. But a corollary purpose was to make aware the fact this violence is far more commonplace than is generally known because of the fear women have of reprisals for attempting to report these crimes against them.

As a result, the United Nations and other international organizations have encouraged the governments of nations worldwide to make the day an international observance.

The U.N. Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women is particularly devoted to this cause. Every Nov. 25, it makes known ways it believes organizations can and should, according to its executive director, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, establish “key strategies to end violence against women, empower women, and achieve gender equality.”

In addition to reminding the world of the need to address the violence against women and empower them, the Nov. 25 observance of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women marks the start of the “16 days of activism” – a parallel movement to increase awareness of violence against women and girls. It ends 16 days later, on Dec. 10, which, not coincidentally, is Human Rights Day, honoring the adoption by the U.N. General Assembly, on Dec. 10, 1964, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the first universal recognition of our undeniable rights as human beings.

Bruce G. Kauffmann’s e-mail address is bruce@historylessons.net @BruceKauffmann