Chiapas/National: Womens’ Rights Defender Martha Figueroa Mier Awarded Recognition

@Aqui Noticias

On January 18th, the Chiapas State Congress awarded a recognition to the defender Martha Guadalupe Figueroa Mier, for her career in favor of women and girls in the state. Deputy Floralma Gomez Santiz, president of the Chiapas Congress Commission for Attention to Women and Children, presented an award to lawyer Martha Figueroa, with the words: “The fight for the rights of girls, adolescents and women in Chiapas has names that support it and without a doubt one of those names that has written history in Chiapas is that of Martha Figueroa. For many of us, Martha’s impetus, heart, affection and soul that she put into the feminist movement was the reason to make feminism part of our lives.”

On receiving the award, Figueroa Mier, who is currently part of the National Citizen Observatory of Femicide (OCNF), declared: “there is still this need for recognition, to continue working on the issue of women (…) the municipal police that harass a student of social service, or who beats his wife in a Zapatista community, they will find me there, whether they like it or not, because it does give me a pleasure (to be there) (…) violence against women is not pretty, it hurts a lot (…) we continue in that fight because the resources for health are still there (…) this recognition forces me to do that, I will continue to be uncomfortable for the institutions, with the law in hand, gender, with the corpus cristi in the hand, so we will continue there”.

The lawyer recalled that in Chiapas violence against women has increased and that many cases of violence and femicide have not yet been resolved, such as that of the doctor Mariana Sanchez Davila in 2021. It should be remembered that since 2018 a Gender Violence Alert was declared for femicide violence in the state, without reversing the worsening situation to date. Figueroa Mier was the founder of the “Womens’ Group of San Cristobal de las Casas”, in Chiapas, and in 1989 she founded the first Sexual Crimes Agency in the entity, she was the first promoter of public policies on violence. Since 2005, she has accompanied cases and denounced the impunity surrounding the violent murders of women, as well as the sexual violence perpetrated by the military against women from indigenous communities.

For more information in Spanish:

Entregan reconocimiento a abogada Martha Figueroa Mier (CIMAC, 18 de enero de 2022)

Entregan reconocimiento a la activista feminista Martha Figueroa Mier (Aquí Noticias, 18 de enero de 2022)

For more information from SIPAZ:

Chiapas: Exigen justicia por el feminicidio de la doctora Daniela Toledo en San Cristóbal de Las Casas (December 24, 2021)