Wilted lilacs
On average, every day in the world, the lives of 137 women are extinguished early in life, victims of the blinding violence exercised against them by their partner, ex-partner or by a close family member.
According to data provided by the United Nations (UN), the recognised forms of gender-based abuse go beyond battering and physical harm to include sexual, psychological, psychological, verbal and even coercion, threats, humiliation, manipulation, contempt and any action to restrict freedom.
These prematurely withered lilacs have lost a battle in the face of a society that is increasingly concerned and occupied with erasing the vestiges of a sexist and patriarchal past in order to modernise the bases of understanding in favour of a better coexistence between men and women in the fullness of the 21st century.
In gender violence there is no established pattern, nor a concrete homogeneous mould, because abuse can happen in a humble home as well as in a home with people of high economic status.
The UN is committed to education as the key to inclusion, equity and respect for equal opportunities for both genders, we will have to work collectively to the point of exhaustion so that, in truth, all the locks can be opened in order to build a better environment for coexistence within the sphere of human relations that are making great strides towards digital understanding and that of social networks.
It is not yet known what the real impact of this world of relationships in social networks will be in terms of gender violence, whether it will end up being an accelerator of abuse given the "rules" implicit in relating to a virtual person and which may end up evolving into a physical relationship and then into the formation of a couple.
The process of courtship, which allows people to get to know each other in the way they are, the dynamics of the Information Society either accelerates it or omits it, becoming a latent issue that could explode at any moment due to any circumstance and, unfortunately, end up with a woman being killed by her partner.
There is no single trigger: it can happen because of a family argument or be planned as an act of revenge, what is certain is that the UN is concerned that, since 2017, the cases of women murdered at the hands of their partners have been on an upward spiral.
I particularly remember - with bristling skin - the shock of watching the Netflix documentary 'The Watts Case: The Homicidal Father' based on a real case of a young family in the United States; the couple met on social media and during their relationship were prone to constantly sharing their lives on Facebook and Instagram, until a horrific cold-blooded crime occurred.
The reconstruction carried out by criminologists, through everything shared by this family on their social networks, provokes a devastating and demoralising emotional shock. What makes a seemingly loving man who has everything, end up killing his pregnant wife and their two young daughters?
Education must be an indispensable tool in the fight against gender-based violence, as well as more inclusive and equitable policies that reduce the stereotyping of patriarchal society.
Perhaps it is time to start a crusade to limit content with scenes of violence and all those that end up objectifying women. The phenomenon of the so-called "herds" of young people, sometimes teenagers, who gang rape a girl has not only shaken Spain, but also India and other nations.
The eradication of violence against women will not be won until we stop objectifying the female gender, there is much to work for in the coming years and decades.
Most probably our generation will die without seeing fundamental changes, but everything that has been fertilised in recent years will be fruitful for the younger generations and certainly for all those to come; I am convinced that persistence will bear fruit to the extent that we also educate in respect because that will mean saving lives... lives that deserve to be lived.