Romina Tejerina: A story of gender violence and patriarchal unjustness (tags)
Romina is a poor youth who was born in one of the most conservative and old-fashioned regions of Argentina: Jujuy. One day, while leaving a party she was raped by her neighbor, Eduardo Vargas. As a result of this raping she became pregnant. For six months she hid her pregnancy, all the while carrying out abortion steps through in-home methods. In spite of being raped, she was unable to ask for assistance as the society where she lives looks negatively upon pregnancy out of wedlock. To be raped is generally looked upon as the fault of the victim, because they either provoked the situation or did not do enough to resist it. During the time that her pregnancy lasted, the rapist felt as if he had gotten away with it and threatened her constantly in order that she wouldn’t say a word. Later, after various attempts at abortion, it ended – prematurely – in the bathroom of her house. She was overcome with post-traumatic stress upon sight of her recently born dead baby. Romina then found herself in a state of mental confusion upon learning what one of the official reports had said. The judge that wrote them never believed that it was actually a case of rape.