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There’s no way to vote for women’s rights in Peru’s presidential elections
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Date: None

Anti-women rhetoric has entered national electoral politics in Peru – the country that is infamous for its policy of mass forced sterilisations of poor, indigenous women 20 years ago.

“God created the man to be the king, the prophet and the priest of your home. And no woman has the right to deprive a man of his God-given role,” the wealthy evangelical pastor Milagros Aguayo recently said. Aguayo is also a founder of Don’t Mess With My Children, a platform for religious and ‘anti-gender’ groups that first appeared in 2017 and has since spread across South America.

She won a seat in Peru’s Congress last month, but her election isn’t the only bad news at the ballot box for women and girls in Peru. Alejandro Aguinaga was also elected as a legislator in April. He was the health minister under President Alberto Fujimori in the late 1990s and one of the perpetrators of Peru’s notorious forced sterilisation campaign.

These aren’t the only setbacks for advocates of women’s rights in Peru. Despite coming from opposite sides of the political spectrum, both candidates for the country’s presidential run-off elections to be held on 6 June are hostile to gender equality and reproductive rights.

Devastating for women and girls

Peru has one of the worst track records in the world when it comes to women’s rights. Abortion is only allowed if the mother’s health or life is at risk. Raped women and girls have no right to terminate their pregnancies, and can be prosecuted and jailed if they do so.

This means that, every day, four under-15s (who are often the victims of rape) are forced into maternity. Every hour, eight 15-19s give birth; two-thirds of such pregnancies are unwanted, according to 2017 figures.

Only half of the country’s women have access to modern methods of contraception, such as condoms or the pill.

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/theres-no-way-to-vote-for-womens-rights-in-perus-presidential-elections/