Abstract

By way of life stories drawn from 20 interviews of women in two municipalities of Rio Grande do Sul, this qualitative study examined how violence against women living in rural areas is silenced and the challenges involved in breaking that silence. Narrative Analysis arrived at two categories: “I suffered in silence and certainly all women are like that” (Violence silenced) and “We take care of her” (Breaking the silence). The first relates to the oppression of imposed silence and how women were affected by violence and isolation. The second shows the challenges facing women who break the silence and leave abusive relationships and how, through their narratives, to access the stories of other women who suffer violence. The narratives stress that the imposition of silence, which arose from gender roles and constraints on freedom, contributed to their continuing in the abusive relationship. The violence was sustained by the rural setting, where women were even more isolated, alone and unsupported, which heightened their fears, guilt, shame and financial dependence. An inter-sector approach, with more information and care for rural women, is fundamental to addressing this problem.

Key words:
Violence against Women; Gender-based Violence; Rural Areas; Narrative

Introduction

Understanding the problem of violence against women hinges on gender issues, because it is tied to relations of unequal power¹1 Saffioti H. Gênero, Patriarcado, violência. 2ª ed. São Paulo: Expressão Popular, Fundação Perseu Abramo; 2015.. In this regard, Bandeira²2 Bandeira LM. Violência de gênero: a construção de um campo teórico e de investigação. In: Hollanda HB, organizador. Pensamento feminista brasileiro: formação e contexto. Rio de Janeiro: Bazar do Tempo; 2019. p. 293-314. (p.295) writes that “this type of violence has historically concentrated significantly on female bodies; violent relationships exist because asymmetric power relations permeate people’s routine lives”. In that way, the gender violence carried out in women’s daily lives ends up being tolerated and socially accepted, silencing the women involved. Saffioti¹1 Saffioti H. Gênero, Patriarcado, violência. 2ª ed. São Paulo: Expressão Popular, Fundação Perseu Abramo; 2015. argues (p.80) “the threat of male aggression hangs over all women’s heads, functioning as a mechanism of subjection to men inscribed into gender relations”.

Feminist movements have played a fundamental role in transposing the issue of violence against women from the private to the public domain, thus helping to extend endeavours to combat it to the political, public health and human rights spheres²2 Bandeira LM. Violência de gênero: a construção de um campo teórico e de investigação. In: Hollanda HB, organizador. Pensamento feminista brasileiro: formação e contexto. Rio de Janeiro: Bazar do Tempo; 2019. p. 293-314.. With time, the gains that have emerged in Brazil included Special Women’s Police Stations in the 1980s, Houses of Shelter in the 1990s, Notification System for Interpersonal and Self-Inflicted Violence in 2003, Women’s Assistance Centres (Call 180) in 2005, the “Maria da Penha Law” in 2006, the Femicide Law in 2015 and other measures and services to assist women. Despite all these advances, it continues to be a challenge for women to break the silence and reach out to assistance services. Souza and Silva³3 Souza MB, Silva MFS. Estratégias de enfrentamento de mulheres vítimas de violência doméstica: uma revisão da literatura brasileira. Pensando Fam 2019; 23(1):153-166. point out that women generally approach services only in more extreme cases of violence or when they realise that they have reached a limit. Importantly, services still suffer from certain deficiencies, such as care personnel’s lack of knowledge and preparedness to make referrals and deal with situations of violence, underreporting of cases of violence, lack of structure to accommodate women and others⁴4 Santos JDLB, Santos CVM. Considerações sobre a rede de enfrentamento à violência contra as mulheres. Rev Contexto Saude 2020; 20(40):139-148..

Addressing specifically violence against women living in rural contexts, Scott et al.⁵5 Scott P, Nascimento FS, Cordeiro R, Nanes G. Networks for facing violence against women in sertao of pernambuco. Rev Estud Fem 2016; 24(3):851-870. drew attention to the dimension of “locality”. They argue that rural contexts, besides their particular characteristics, such as the way of life, of working and relating to the land, also display weaknesses, including lack of access to goods and services, generally located in urban centres. As regards combating violence against women, rural areas are also more deprived of institutions and services, such as police stations, health centres and shelters. Remember that, in smaller towns, institutions specifically to assist women in situations of violence are practically non-existent. Lack of information, long distances, limited access to transport, dependence on a partner and health personnel untrained to identify and refer cases are factors that contribute to rural women’s continuing to live in situations of violence⁶6 Costa MC, Silva EB, Soares JDSF, Borth LC, Honnef F. Mulheres rurais e situações de violência: fatores que limitam o acesso e a acessibilidade à rede de atenção à saúde. Rev Gaucha Enferm 2017; 38(2):e59553.. In this way, women who live in rural contexts, “where cries for help are barely heard”⁷7 Scott P, Rodrigues AC, Saraiva JC. Onde mal se ouvem os gritos de socorro: notas sobre a violência contra a mulher em contextos rurais. In: Scott P, Cordeiro R, Menezes M, organizadores. Gênero e geração em contextos rurais. Ilha de Santa Catarina: Editora Mulheres; 2010. p. 63-93. (p.63), are relegated to silence and face a life of everyday violence alone.

The systematic silencing of women has extirpated them from history and clothed them in social standards, relegating them to anonymity even in the domestic sphere, which has been designated “their place”⁸8 Perrot M. As Mulheres ou os Silêncios da História. Bauru: EDUSC; 2005.. Through orality and their memories, however, women have told their stories and broken the oppressive silence. Del Priore⁹9 Del Priore M. História das mulheres: as vozes do silêncio. In: Freitas MC, organizador. Historiografia brasileira em perspectiva. 4ª ed. São Paulo: Contexto; 2001. p. 217-235. (p.229) wrote “by evoking private subjectivity, oral history has helped restore women’s political dimension and given political significance to their personal discourse”. Daron¹⁰10 Daron VLP. Um grito lilás: cartografia da violência às mulheres do campo e da floresta. Brasília: Secretaria de Políticas para as Mulheres; 2009. (p.2) argued that “we need to put together a set of data search and analysis resources to address the silence” to which rural women have been subjected. In that regard, this study, by way of life stories, examines violence against women living in rural contexts, how they are silenced and the challenges of breaking that silence.

Methodological pathways

This qualitative study was inspired by the Life History Method. Bertaux¹¹11 Bertaux D. La perspectiva biografica: validez metodológica y potencialidades. Cahiers Int Sociol 1980; 69:197-225. writes that life stories are incomparable as an instrument for accessing subjective experience and their wealth of content is an inexhaustible source of hypotheses. Accordingly, the narrator’s subjectivity can be seen as a “unique, precious” element. What is important is that memory functions not as a passive depository of facts, but rather as an active process of creating meanings¹²12 Fraser R. La Historia Oral como historia desde abajo. Ayer 1993; 12:79-92.^,1313 Portelli A, Ribeiro TMTJ, Fenelón RTDR. O que faz a história oral diferente. Revph 1997; 14:25-39.. In that regard, the “image of the mosaic is useful in thinking about such a scientific enterprise. Each piece added to a mosaic adds a little to our understanding of the total picture”¹⁴14 Becker HS. A história de vida e o mosaico científico. In: Becker HS. Métodos de pesquisa em ciências sociais. São Paulo: Hucitec; 1993. p. 101-115.. Becker¹⁴14 Becker HS. A história de vida e o mosaico científico. In: Becker HS. Métodos de pesquisa em ciências sociais. São Paulo: Hucitec; 1993. p. 101-115. (p.104) argued that attention to diversity is important, because “different pieces contribute different things to our understanding: some are useful because of their color, others because they make clear the outline of an object”.

The two small municipalities chosen for this study, Bossoroca and São Miguel das Missões, belong to the 12^th Regional Health Coordination Area of Rio Grande do Sul (RS). Both have populations of around 7,000, with approximately 48% living in rural areas. These locations were chosen for the main researcher’s proximity to the territory and the key informants. Proximity was an important consideration as, in rural areas, it was necessary to know the roads and have someone accompany you on journeys and mediate with women. The residences in rural areas were from 2 to 45 km from to the urban centre, all on dirt roads. The study participants were 29 women over the age of 18, who had lived in rural areas for most of their lives. The study took place in September and October 2022.

To reach the women, we were supported by rural community health workers (CHWs). The women were interviewed in their own homes at times when they were alone. The technique chosen was to interview using a guiding script prepared by the researchers. The interviews lasted an average of 45 minutes, were recorded and later transcribed in full. Of the 29 interviews, 20 were chosen for this article, because of their narratives of violence.

This study applied narrative analysis, understood as a “strategy based on a critical and thoughtful look at the stories and information that emerge from the data production stage. Its purpose is to examine the components of the narrative, especially events, experiences and discourse. The interpretation thus introduces another explanatory and interpretative layer to the narratives”¹⁵15 Ceccon RF, Garcia-Jr CAS, Dallmann JMA, Portes VM. Narrativas em Saúde Coletiva: memória, método e discurso. Rio de Janeiro: Fiocruz; 2022. (p.87). This analysis focuses on the interviewee’s experience and not the chain of events. The interview transcriptions were read in full and the main elements with similarities across interviews were summarised. The thematic categories observed were organised into 1) “I suffered in silence and certainly all women are like that” - Violence and imposed silence; 2) “We take care of her” - Breaking the silence. The first refers to the oppression of imposed silence and how the women have been affected by violence and isolation. The second poses the challenges facing women who break the silence and leave abusive relationships and how their narratives give access to the stories of other women who suffer violence.

To illustrate the narratives, excerpts considered noteworthy are given below. For that purpose, the story fragments were written with an aesthetic in mind, with a view to highlighting the experiences shared in the interviews, since “aesthetics propels and captures sensibilities, subjectivities, discourses and lived experiences, the stories that are hidden, invisible and minimised”¹⁵15 Ceccon RF, Garcia-Jr CAS, Dallmann JMA, Portes VM. Narrativas em Saúde Coletiva: memória, método e discurso. Rio de Janeiro: Fiocruz; 2022. (p.103). The excerpts thus give the interviewees’ own words, but are more organised aesthetically so as to sustain the main story.

The interview excerpts show participants coded from M1 to M20, with “M” taken from Margarida Maria Alves, a union leader and symbol of resistance and the fight against violence in the countryside and for agrarian reform and rural workers’ rights. To silence her, she was murdered, shot in the face on August 12, 1983. However, “they didn’t know that Margarida was a seed”¹⁶16 Barack F. Eles não sabiam que Margarida era semente e se espalharia por todo o Brasil [Internet]. FETAG-PB; 2018 [acessado 2023 mar 15]. Disponível em: https://www.fetagpb.org.br/2018/08/10/eles-nao-sabiam-que-margarida-era-semente-e-se-espalharia-por-todo-o-brasil/.
https://www.fetagpb.org.br/2018/08/10/el... and that her death continues to inspire rural women in the fight for their rights and a life free from violence. Other interviewee characteristics (age, race/colour, education, age at marriage, marital status), are organised in Chart 1 in the Results and Discussion section.

The study was submitted to the Research Ethics Committee of the Sergio Arouca National School of Public Health, Fiocruz, and approved on May 9, 2022 (Opinion No. 5.395.759). All study participants signed a declaration of free and informed consent.

Results and discussion

Entering the silence and introducing the Margaridas

Travelling the long dirt roads flanked by fields, forests or crops to the women’s houses was like entering a deep silence, now broken by the voices of the narratives, at times firmer, at times emotional and interrupted by pauses and at times in lowered tones, when speaking of the problems that caused them the most suffering. The women who opened the doors of their homes to us sat in the shade in their backyards and kindly shared their lives, stories and experiences, at the same time making their own analyses of past and present. Silva et al.¹⁷17 Silva AP, Barros CR, Nogueira MLM, Barros VA. "Conte-me sua história": reflexões sobre o método de História de Vida. Mosaico 2007; 1(1):25-35. describe how the experience of telling a life story offers the teller an opportunity to relive it, to re-signify their life and reconstruct it in a therapeutic direction.

The study participants’ ages (Chart 1) were quite varied: two were 30 to 39 years old; four, 40 to 49 years old; nine, 50 to 59 years old; and five, 60 to 78 years old. Twelve declared their race/skin colour to be white and eight, mixed or black. Most (12) were married, half were in their second marriage, five were separated, three were widows and all had children. At marriage, 11 were between 13 and 18 years old, six between 13 and 15 years old, and the others between 19 and 31 years old. Sixteen had not completed, and only one had completed, lower secondary school; two had completed, and one had not completed, upper secondary school. For own income, nine received a retirement pension or a pension from their husband, seven received government assistance and, of these, three supplemented the assistance with day labour or temporary work. Only one interviewee received a wage, two had not income of their own, but worked with their husbands selling milk and surplus, and another was trying to recover the government family allowance that had been cancelled.

“I suffered in silence and certainly all women are like that” [M20] - Violence and imposed silence

Silence is imposed by oppression, by something that prevents a person from speaking, from expressing themselves, and forces them to hold silent. Solnit¹⁸18 Solnit R. A mãe de todas as perguntas: reflexões sobre os novos feminismos. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras; 2017. (p.17), writes that “silence is the ocean of the unsaid, the unspeakable, the repressed, the erased, the unheard”. Historically, women have been silenced and, Perrot⁸8 Perrot M. As Mulheres ou os Silêncios da História. Bauru: EDUSC; 2005. notes (p.9), “forgotten”, their stories neither narrated nor documented, as if women were outside of events. “Silence is common among women”, she writes, because it is tied up with their secondary, subordinate position. In that respect, Beauvoir¹⁹19 Beauvoir S. O segundo sexo: fatos e mitos. Vol. 1. 5ª ed. Rio de Janeiro: Nova Fronteira; 2019. refers to women as the “Other”, that is, with men defined as the absolute, essential subject and women as non-essential, “the second sex”. If women are not part of the essential world, then their stories need not be told or heard and, if heard, do not warrant due attention. In this way, their words are deprived of legitimacy and not taken seriously.

The gender roles deep-rooted in society have granted men primacy and power, affording them approval and tolerance to punish whatever appeared to them to be deviations and transgressed the behaviour culturally expected of women¹1 Saffioti H. Gênero, Patriarcado, violência. 2ª ed. São Paulo: Expressão Popular, Fundação Perseu Abramo; 2015.. This has tended to naturalise and disguise the most diverse forms of violence practiced against women:

Looking at her past, this interviewee was able to perceive how subtly the violence began; in other words, with her then boyfriend’s interfering in how she presented herself, based on his taste and preference for loose, “more feminine” hair. The fact that she “thought that was the way it was” underlines the woman’s submissive role. At first, violence may be veiled, so that the woman does not realise what is going on. At the same time, she starts to feel she cannot “please” her partner enough, besides feeling guilt for not achieving what is expected of her²⁰20 Nader MB. Violência sutil contra a mulher no ambiente doméstico: uma nova abordagem de um velho fenômeno. In: Silva GV, Nader MB, Franco SP, organizadores. História, mulher e poder. Vitória: Edufes; 2006. p. 235-252.. Another salient aspect is his “rudeness and lack of affection” once they were married. These attitudes can be interpreted as psychological violence, which happens surreptitiously and silently, without the woman herself realising it: as the interviewee herself said, “at first it wasn’t violence as such”. In this way, a woman’s self-esteem is undermined, leaving her insecure and keeping her role submissive. Accordingly, other attacks emerge²¹21 Clark LM, Silva LFI, Andrade RD. Violência psicológica contra a mulher. Eixos Tech 2018; 5:1-19.^,2222 Gomes R, Minayo MCS, Silva CFR. Violência contra a mulher: uma questão transnacional e transcultural das relações de gênero. In: Brasil. Ministério da Saúde (MS). Impacto da violência na saúde dos brasileiros. Brasília: MS; 2005.. Moreover, these situations cause feelings of loneliness and abandonment. Nader²⁰20 Nader MB. Violência sutil contra a mulher no ambiente doméstico: uma nova abordagem de um velho fenômeno. In: Silva GV, Nader MB, Franco SP, organizadores. História, mulher e poder. Vitória: Edufes; 2006. p. 235-252. explains that the subtle violence of loneliness is difficult to identify as a form of abuse, because it leaves no marks on the body and takes place over time.

In that connection, another factor that contributes to loneliness is restricted freedom. Seven women described a lack of freedom in their relationships. For instance, they were not allowed to spend time with their families: “I couldn’t see my brothers, who lived four kilometres away, and I couldn’t even see my family” [M20]. Other situations, such as needing the husband’s consent to visit her own mother, to go to health appointments, to the hospital to take care of a relative; only being able to participate in social activities accompanied by him or, when she needed to go alone, the husband would go to check that she was really there. “Alone”, that expression appeared often during the interviews: being alone because they were isolated from family and friends and because they felt weakened and humiliated:

That excerpt shows several things: first, her teenage marriage to a man more than twice her age, because of her wanting “a home” without violence. Early marriage is often motivated by the young woman’s desire to have more freedom to go out, to have fun or even to have a better life free from violence or poverty. What happens, though, is the opposite. The teenager generally gets pregnant and stops going to school. As a result, she is less likely to have a formal job and becomes financially dependent on her partner, is relegated to housework and subjected to violence. Early marriage can also be regarded as violence²³23 Taylor A, Lauro G, Segundo M, Greene ME. "Ela vai no meu barco." Casamento na infância e adolescência no Brasil. Resultados de Pesquisa de Método Misto. Rio de Janeiro, Washington, D.C.: Instituto Promundo, Promundo-US; 2015.. Secondly, prohibition on seeing the family isolates her, highlighting the abusive relationship and demarcating a power to limit what relationships and space she can enjoy and frequent. Kipnis²⁴24 Kipnis BJ. Mulheres em situação de violência em áreas rurais [dissertação]. São Paulo: Fundação Getúlio Vargas; 2018. placed the absence of support networks and feelings of loneliness among the consequences of isolation that work to maintain women in situations of violence. She observes that social isolation, in addition to being the first step towards other forms of violence, can itself be a form of aggression against women; for example, when they are prevented from visiting family and friends or from working outside the home.

From this perspective, Solnit¹⁸18 Solnit R. A mãe de todas as perguntas: reflexões sobre os novos feminismos. São Paulo: Companhia das Letras; 2017. (p.19) saw violence as a way of silencing: “a husband hits his wife to silence her”. She also notes that women are silenced when their wishes are not respected, as in partner sexual violence, when their words or statements are devalued and delegitimised and when they are interrupted during conversation, humiliated, belittled:

This painful account tells not only of the husband’s neglect of his wife’s health care by denying the symptoms of illness and not even accompanying her to the health centre, but his disregard for her post-surgical recovery by forcing her to have sexual intercourse. Saffioti²⁵25 Saffioti H. O poder do macho. São Paulo: Moderna; 1987. (p.18) argued that “the extreme case of the use of power in male-female relationships can be characterised by rape. Against to the woman’s wishes, the man has sexual relations with her, thus proving his ability to submit the other party”. In this way, male power is reinforced by his enforcing his will over any situation. During the study, only two women spoke spontaneously about sexual violence, which may be because it is an extremely intimate matter or even culturally regarded as a woman’s “conjugal duty” towards her husband and not perceived as violence²⁶26 Sousa RF. Cultura do estupro - a prática implícita de incitação à violência sexual contra mulheres. Rev Estud Fem 2017; 25(1):9-29.. Another aspect of this statement that should be considered is the dimension of “locality”, mentioned previously by Scott et al.⁷7 Scott P, Rodrigues AC, Saraiva JC. Onde mal se ouvem os gritos de socorro: notas sobre a violência contra a mulher em contextos rurais. In: Scott P, Cordeiro R, Menezes M, organizadores. Gênero e geração em contextos rurais. Ilha de Santa Catarina: Editora Mulheres; 2010. p. 63-93.. A woman living in a rural area far from the urban centre and neighbours may be retrained from leaving the house, even for a healthcare appointment. Lack of public or private transport increases dependence on the husband, who is generally the one with a driver’s license, or on neighbours’ help to get around²⁷27 Bueno ALM, Lopes MJM. Rural women and violence: Readings of a reality that approaches fiction. Ambient Soc 2018; 21:e01511.^,2828 Honnef F, Costa MC, Arboit J, Silva EB, Marques KA. Social representations of domestic violence against women and men in the rural settings. Acta Paul Enferm 2017; 30(4):368-374..

Silencing causes women to continue in abusive relationships, because besides feeling alone and isolated, they are uncomfortable talking about the subject with other people: “The truth is, no one opens up, says what’s happening. Even today they don’t open up, they still don’t talk about it. It’s hard for someone to open up and say my husband beat me up, he swore at me” [M18]. Nader²⁰20 Nader MB. Violência sutil contra a mulher no ambiente doméstico: uma nova abordagem de um velho fenômeno. In: Silva GV, Nader MB, Franco SP, organizadores. História, mulher e poder. Vitória: Edufes; 2006. p. 235-252. reports that it is common for women to hide situations of violence they experience from their families and other people close to them. This is partly because they harbour ambivalent feelings towards their partner, as well as self-blame and shame. There may be two other aspects - religious and moral - to this difficulty in “opening up” and speaking out. Schmitz²⁹29 Schmitz AM. Mulheres camponesas de Itapiranga e a invisibilidade da violência. Grifos 2013; 22(34/35): 195-213., who interviewed rural women in a region of settlers of German stock, found a religious influence educating women to be good mothers and obedient wives, not to complain about overwork, to be submissive to their husbands and ask permission for everything. This made them “suffer in silence” to safeguard the family honour and morals, making the women feel responsible for the family unit at whatever cost: “now, the family we won’t change, no matter how bad it is” [M12].

It is also significant that three of the interviewees were widows whose life stories tell of enduring and “seeing it out to the end” beside their partners, as in this excerpt:

Here one can see the influence of a strict education that influences women to stay on in relationships for “shame of separating” and dishonour. It was only widowhood that brought her “freedom”. Motta³⁰30 Motta AB. Viúvas: o mistério da ausência. Estud Interdiscip Envelhec 2005; 7:7-24. one aspect of widows is that they emerge from the subordinate role they lived during marriage, aggravated by situations of violence, poverty and privation of a family or social life. They thus find a certain “relief” and are able to resume their lives and experience of fun, work and independence anew.

“We take care of her” - Breaking the silence

Breaking the silence is a bold, courageous act, because the woman is breaking with everything that patriarchal society has imposed on her as normal. Participants said that continuing in the relationship was connected with financial dependence, having nowhere to go, fear, protecting their children, shame, fear of being judged and criticised, self-blame, thinking their husband would change and having received a religious and moralistic education. There is a limit to everything, though, and “there comes a point where no honour is worth the price” [M13]. Women who broke off abusive relationships identified the main challenges in the separation process as being how to maintain themselves financially and threats from their former husband. Three filed complaints with the police requesting protective measures, which took them away from their former husbands and therefore made them feel safer:

Of the women who had applied for protective orders, none had access to public transport - so much so that they had to walk or hitchhike into town: “I couldn’t take it anymore. I hitchhiked and went in to do what I had to do [apply for a protective order], because there’s no bus here, you depend on getting a ride” [M15]. “Hitchhiking” highlights their dependence on someone else’s “goodwill” and the difficulty of getting from their home into town. Ultimately, these factors often prevent women from asking for help, filing a complaint and applying for a protective order, or they delay the process, leaving them exposed to violence and the risk of femicide³¹31 Grossi PK, Grossi ML, Gasparotto G, Vieira MS, Coutinho ARC. Violence against rural women in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil: challenges for public policies. ESJ 2014; 1(10):295-310..

Another important concern among the interviewees was how to support themselves financially, especially because they have children who will remain with them. Some at first depended on support from their families and government benefits, such as the family allowance program and sickness benefit until, with time, they managed to get back on their feet. Some moved for a while to work as domestics in town. Others stayed on their rural properties and, with the help of children or siblings, supported themselves by selling milk or other produce, or found employment on nearby rural properties. Women who lived three to four kilometres from town found it easier to get jobs as dailies or domestics, even with no means of transport, by walking in on dirt roads, notwithstanding the intense heat, dust, cold, rain and mud. Financial autonomy “thus entails not only involve financial independence and income generation, but also presupposes autonomy to make choices”³²32 Entidade das Nações Unidas para a Igualdade de Gênero e o Empoderamento das Mulheres (ONU MULHERES). Gênero e Autonomia Econômica para as Mulheres. Caderno de Formação. Brasília: Secretaria Especial de Políticas para as Mulheres; 2016. and even functions as an auxiliary mechanism in breaking off the violent relationship. It is thus essential to have public financial aid policies for women who have left abusive relationships, as well as offering professional qualification and placement on the job market³³33 Piciula LN, Pavarina AF, Morong FF. Aspecto financeiro diante da violência doméstica: como fator de risco e característica emancipadora da mulher. Colloquium Socialis 2021; 5(3):45-58.. Also essential are measures specifically for rural women, such as courses in managing their properties, to strengthen family farming, financing, selling their produce and so on, so that they can stay on in the rural area and are not forced to migrate to the town, leaving their culture and way of life.

Support came not just from family, but from neighbours and health personnel:

Only one interviewee had spoken to a doctor and psychologist and two others had support from CHWs. Now, over the years the women suffered violence, at some point, they must have seen health professional or been visited by CHWs. Could something more not have been done for them through health services? In their studies on combating violence against rural women, Arboit et al.³⁴34 Arboit J, Costa MC, Silva EB, Colomé ICS, Prestes M. Domestic violence against rural women: Care practices developed by community health workers. Saude Soc 2018; 27(2):506-517. found that CHWs lacked the qualifications and multi-professional and inter-sector support necessary to respond effectively to the violence-related demands of rural women. Costa et al.³⁵35 Costa MC, Silva EB, Arboit J, Honnef F, Marques KA, Barbieri J, Silva, DM. Violência doméstica contra a mulher em contexto rural: reconhecimento das estratégias de atenção. Rev Bras Promoc Saude 2019; 32:9271. observed that personnel of the Family Health Strategy (ESF) felt they lacked the skills required to act in both recognising and addressing situations of violence against rural women. The silence thus also pervades institutions that should offer help, but are not fully capable of performing their role in combating violence. Meanwhile, the women are submerged in silence, which ultimately is also a form of communication.

Some women who participated in the study did not talk about their experiences of violence, but their stories emerged during interviews with other women with whom their lives intersected:

There is an African proverb, “Silence is also a way of speaking”. From that, these women can be seen to be subjugated and silenced, their silence a cry for help for their very life.

Memory brings up a confluence of past and present, individuality and collectivity. Tedeschi³⁶36 Tedeschi LA. Os lugares da História Oral e da Memória nos Estudos de Gênero. OPSIS 2015; 15(2):330-343. (p.356) argued that “although personal memories are unique and unrepeatable, a person never remembers alone, they are always immersed in a collective order that contains them”. Accordingly, when narrating their own stories permeated with violence, they are also telling the stories of other women, thus breaking the silence collectively.

As rightly expressed by Soares³⁷37 Borges GS, Soares PHF. Mulheres (in)visíveis: A opressão e a luta das mulheres do campo de São Lourenço do Sul [Internet]. 2021 [acessado 2023 mar 15]. Disponível em: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsOKRrcFA-A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsOKRrcF... , “we are not giving these women a voice; they have always had a voice, but they have not always been heard, because they have been systematically silenced”. In this way, telling their own stories becomes a political act, as described by Ricoeur³⁸38 Ricoeur P. Teoria da Interpretação: o discurso e o excesso de significação. Lisboa: Edições 70; 1976., the experience as experienced, as lived, remains private, but from the moment the experience is shared and information is transferred its sense, its meaning becomes public. Orality is one of the ways to make ordinary women’s stories visible. Perrot⁸8 Perrot M. As Mulheres ou os Silêncios da História. Bauru: EDUSC; 2005. argued that women mobilise their memories when telling their stories, because “women’s memory is a verb” and is intimately linked to the orality of traditional societies through the storyteller’s mission. The life history method’s potential to bring to light experiences of violence in the interviewees lives is thus plain to see. It encouraged them to break the silence in which they lived or had once lived in their relationships, to revisit their memories and conduct their own analyses, enabling them to give new meaning to what they had experienced. Most of them no longer lived in violent relationships, but remember that experiences of violence and their effects persisted in their lives in different ways: “It is a lifelong process” [M14].

Final remarks

Telling their own stories is an opportunity to revisit their memories and give new meanings to what they have experienced. By sharing them, the women made public their trajectories and resistance to all they had experienced. Breaking the silence is no simple task. The women who agreed to take part in the study and tell their stories infused with the violence they suffered did not speak for themselves alone, but for a group of women: their mothers, grandmothers, sisters-in-law, friends, neighbours, relatives and even others unknown to them, but represented in their declarations. Ultimately, all of us are responsible for helping to break the silence. Attentive, respectful listening during care at health and assistance facilities, training for managers and staffs, stronger public policies for women living in rural areas, research on the issue, discussion of the issue in academic settings and so on are all ways of addressing and exposing this problem.

These women were subjected to the most diverse kinds of violence observed in the course of this article, “Gender violence, including its family and domestic forms, does not occur randomly, but derives from a social organisation of gender, which privileges the male”¹1 Saffioti H. Gênero, Patriarcado, violência. 2ª ed. São Paulo: Expressão Popular, Fundação Perseu Abramo; 2015. (p.85). Moreover, the study observed that the violence found support in the rural context itself, in the form of long distances and difficult travel, which left women even more isolated and lonely, accentuating their fears, guilt and shame. There was also a lack of witnesses, contributing to the women’s not being seen or heard when asking for help. The women were also seen to find support to the extent that they spoke to people they trusted and sought to escape their violent situation. Support came from family, neighbours and health personnel, especially when they were going through difficult times. This is an important consideration and one that could be more present in women’s lives. What does one do so that they do not feel alone? How does one reach them and make them feel understood and safeguarded? If the patriarchal culture that silences them is still present in their families and calls for long-term awareness building, then short-term measures are needed, because the women who suffer violence cannot wait. In this regard, there is an urgent need for inter-sector work between the health sector and unions, movements, social assistance and police, which can make a difference for women in guaranteeing them safety, health, financial and legal assistance and, most importantly, their very lives.

It is thus essential that women living in rural areas receive more information, so that they know their rights, know where to turn and who to count on when they need to. It is hoped that this article can help break the silence on the issue of violence against rural women and thus encourage other studies, which are still scarce, in order to strengthen the discussion and combat violence against this public.

References

Publication Dates

History