Women Protest Against Brazil's Lower House Speaker in São Paulo and Rio

11/13/2015 - 09h41

Last Thursday (12), at the beginning of the night, hundreds of women have protested in São Paulo and in Rio against Brazil's lower house speaker Eduardo Cunha (PMDB-RJ) and his bill 5069, which restricts abortion rights to victims of rape.

São Paulo's Paulista Avenue, in the city centre, was completely blocked towards Consolação Street. The demonstrators, mostly women, walked with signs, screaming songs and slogans.

According to the organizers, 5000 people attended the demonstration. The Military Police said there were 350 people in the protest. The protest was organized by about 20 women's collectives.

Student Ana Tavares, 19, one of the coordinators of the protest, says it aims to overturn Cunha's bill. "We don't want a right that we have to be taken", she said. She believes it is important that the demonstration does not lose focus.

In Rio de Janeiro, hundreds of women gathered in front of the Legislative Assembly building, in the Centre. The group carried banners and yelled anti-Cunha slogans. One of them read: "My body is not money in Switzerland to be of your business".

Cunha is being investigated after it was revealed he owns bank accounts in Switzerland with money of suspicious origin.

Rio's Municipal Executive Secretary, Pedro Paulo Carvalho (PMDB-RJ), who admitted having assaulted his ex-wife during a fight in 2010, was also target of the protests.

He is the candidate chosen by the city's current mayor Eduardo Paes to run for municipal elections next year.

Translated by JULIANA CALDERARI

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