Exceptional flower

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On Children’s Day, I gave him a beautiful bicycle. I researched, saved money to buy, put it together and off we went to the park to ride. Then an intrusive thought arises: Strava data, dating from 2023, reveals that, worldwide, women spend 55% less time cycling than men. In Brazil, this figure is as high as 37%, matching the gender disparity observed globally. One of the relevant reasons for this difference is sexual harassment and stalking. According to the Profile of the Brazilian Cyclist 2024, a survey carried out by Transporte Ativo, in São Paulo, 65.7% of women and in Belém 67.7% have already suffered some form of assault or harassment while cycling. So, is it really worth teaching her something she probably won’t use when she’s older?

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She has just graduated from kindergarten and is the only child to receive a bouquet of flowers. When I arrived with the gift, everyone was surprised, including mine, that no one else made the same gesture. Bia has been receiving flowers since she was 1 year old, and it’s been like this every year. I find it very symptomatic and representative that this has become such a rare occurrence. Valuing a girl, from a young age, helps build an adult with good self-esteem and the confidence to pursue what they want, without settling for anything.

A society that does not care for these children makes their lives truly disposable, and tragedies are visible daily.

Then, Andressa, in 2021, fell off her bike after a man put his hand on her while she was riding in the street. In August this year, another man punched Juliana 60 times in an elevator. Among the most recent cases, we unfortunately had Tainara and Evelyn as victims. In 2024, Brazil will break a record for femicide: 1,492 cases.

We are talking about a country where the thesis of self-defense of the attacker’s honor after an alleged betrayal – used to justify crimes against women, such as femicide – was only officially removed from the justice system in 2021.

Last year, the penalty for femicide was increased from 20 to 40 years of imprisonment by the anti-femicide package, which also created new aggravating circumstances (such as the practice during pregnancy or in the presence of children) and imposed stricter requirements for the progression of the regime, toughening the criminal treatment of these crimes against women.