To the Current Goverment Administration of Puerto Rico and the Department of Education:

We need gender equality in Puerto Rico and Puerto Rican schools. Violence against women is at an all time high, in what seems to be a national crisis.

The current social perspective towards women is having adverse effects:

2014 saw a 57% increase in reported rapes in Puerto Rico.

Last year, 16 women were killed by their romantic partners, 12,071 cases of domestic abuse were reported (many cases go unreported); out of the 11,971 victims who were able to seek help or even go to the police, 9,816 were female. Of the 11,923 reported aggressors, 9,546 were male. A total of 11,962 restraining orders were filed in 2014.

(Source: Dept. of Police: Statistics Division, Oficial Report)

Just last week, a news story detailing a Puerto Rican woman’s horrid story of abuse went viral. She had been kept in a basement where it was found her romantic partner had starved her, beat her, forced her to eat her own feces and burned her genital area with hot oil on numerous occasions. She had been held hostage for TWO YEARS before finally escaping.

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