Human Rights and Women: can the school civilize?

Abstract

The fight for concrete rights will never be exhausted in a society marked by inequality. Economic exploitation and the different forms of oppression that produce and reproduce all forms of inequality create privileged groups that enjoy all possible rights, and others who barely know their rights, or even worse, even knowing them, still do not see their rights respected. Violence is unquestionably a powerful instrument for establishing order, for gaining and maintaining power. Women have their basic rights affected, for example, the right to come without risk of being molested; the right to dress as one wishes; the right to be able to say no to the wishes of any man, even if he is his partner; the right not to have the value of his work diminished in comparison to the work of a man; the right to be physically protected from an ex-partner, a potential murderer who repeatedly threatens him; the right to enjoy public transportation without suffering any form of harassment; in short, this list could be extended by endless items that are part of all Brazilian women, and what is even more serious, since their childhood, when most women suffer some kind of abuse or, at least, attempted sexual abuse, from more subtle forms to the most perverse, gross. Education is discussed here as a fundamental element to problematize human rights, bringing out elements that highlight the invisibility that rights, when thought from the lives of women, present.