Author: Dahiana Gussoni

My name is Dahiana Gussoni. I was born and raised in Costa Rica, a small country in Central America. Since little my parents have penetrated me this fear of going outside alone and being raped or killed. You might think they are exaggerating, but in reality they are not. There are lots of men that are not respectful in any way, there is always the chance of being touched or catcalled. It has happened to me even when I am walking with my dad. We are taught to live with it, to ignore and walk away from it. I certainly don't believe this is okay and SHOULD NOT be normalized like something women should bear with in their everyday life. Costa Rica is considered a peaceful and progressive country (it is the first Central American country to legalize same sex marriage), but it continues to have deeply sexist ideologies that defend the man as the head of the family; it prevails the belief that women must be submissive to male authority. This is shown on the 364 women that have been killed in almost a decade and a half in my country of only 4,999 million. Each of them had a name, a family and a future, but they died violently at the hands of men who believed they were their owners. They ended their existence out of a desire for dominance and control. I hope that through SHEQUALITY I can inform how women are treated in my country and in all Latin America to bring awareness and justice to all those women that are not here anymore. I believe that if women are still being murdered for the simple fact of being a woman, when girls continue to be raped, and laws to protect women are still being discussed in Congress our job as young women has not finished. It is our obligation to bring justice and raise our voices to stop this violation of human rights.