Femi(ni)cide – a phenomenon as “old as the patriarchy itself”
Aleida Luján Pinelo has been researching the phenomenon of femi(ni)cide – the murder of women – for years, particularly within the context of Germany. In addition to her scientific work, she is also co-founder of the ‘Feminizidmap’: a database that documents all femi(ni)cides and homicides of women and girls in Germany. Luján Pinelo's interest in Germany is based on personal experiences, in particular the realisation that the topic still garners far too little attention there. As an authority on the subject, she addressed questions from the Finnland-Institut team on the topic of femi(ni)cide in her blog post.
For the past five years, I have been researching femi(ni)cide in Germany as part of my doctoral research. In parallel, I co-founded an independent research project to document femi(ni)cides in Germany, Feminizidmap. During this period I have observed how the subject of femi(ni)cide has been gaining traction in Germany in several spheres such as the academic, legal, activist, and political. Even so, many questions remain in the air for a society that has just begun to show interest in the subject. As an exercise, I asked members of the Finnland-Institut in Berlin to pose some of their questions about femi(ni)cide and my research, which I used as a guide in writing this text. I hope that the readers of this blog will also find the answers to these questions both interesting and motivating to continue investigating the topic.
‘Gender-based violence’ and ‘violence against women’ are umbrella terms that have been used to describe several forms of patriarchal violence. Their definitions have varied over the years; sometimes they are used interchangeably, or are used in different ways depending on the field of research or activism. Still, these terms cover several forms of violence, one of which is femi(ni)cide, which is sometimes considered the ultimate and most extreme form of patriarchal violence.[1] But what is femi(ni)cide in the first place?
There is no straightforward answer to this question, and several definitions of the term exist. However, there is a general understanding of the term as “the killing of women by men because they are women.”[2] It is important to highlight that femi(ni)cide is not simply the ‘female’ version of homicide for this reason, not all killings of women are femi(ni)cides. For example, if during a bank robbery shots are fired and there are women among the murdered victims, at first glance it cannot be said that it is a femi(ni)cide; the characteristics of the victims, in principle, are irrelevant to the aggressor. In my use of femi(ni)cide, I have come to frame it as a concept that applies to certain killings of women and girls or feminised subjects – those which occur within the patriarchal apparatus or power hierarchies of sex/gender.[3]
But the question about the definition of femi(ni)cide is also linked to other questions, such as if there is a difference between ‘femicide’ and ‘feminicide’. If there is, what is the difference? And, why I am using ‘femi(ni)cide’? The feminist use of ‘femicide was first theorised by Diana Russell in the 70’s in the English-speaking context, whereas ‘feminicide’ was developed by Marcela Lagarde in the Spanish-speaking context in the late 90’s, informed by Russell’s work. In femi(ni)cide research, femicide and feminicide are sometimes used interchangeably, and this is often expressed by using ‘femicide/feminicide’. In other instances, ‘femicide’ is used to refer to the English term and ‘feminicide’ to its Spanish translation. Others might limit the use of ‘feminicide’ to refer to cases in which there is state impunity. I argue that ‘feminicide’ is not the Spanish translation of ‘femicide’ , nor is ‘femicide’ the only ‘correct’ term in English. I have proposed the framing ‘femi(ni)cide’ to avoid narratives that perpetuate hierarchies between terms and rather invite for informed and engaged dialogues.[4] However, one can use the term that best suits them. There is no single correct term in English, German or any other language.
The phenomenon of femi(ni)cide has been around for a long time, it is as “old as the patriarchy itself,”[5] but it has not always been considered a form of violence and cruelty. In comparison, the concept of femi(ni)cide is relatively new. But naming these acts as crimes has been important to make such cruelties visible and to develop strategies to avoid them. Femi(ni)cide occurs in all societies, but it manifests differently in each of them.[6] Although most femi(ni)cides occur in domestic settings, and particularly by partners or ex-partners – so-called intimate femi(ni)cide – there are other types that deserve to not be overlooked, such as family, child, lesbophobic, transphobic, racist, per connection, per prostitution/sex work, per human trafficking, and per genital mutilation.[7] Like any classification, these types are not fixed nor are they free of complexities. However, they are useful in establishing mechanisms and characteristics that help us to understand why they happen and thus serve to build strategies based on this.
My interest in researching femi(ni)cide in Germany is informed by my own experience. While living in the country, I became familiar with some cases that I identified as femi(ni)cides, although they were not framed as such, and witnessed how the media emphasised the cases in which the ‘cultural background’ of perpetrators or victims was not European. But my interest in Germany also corresponded to my disagreement with a statement I came across in 2014, in which Germany responded to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, arguing that ‘feminicide’ is a phenomenon that does not occur in its territory.[8] The government’s refusal to acknowledge the existence of the problem, the lack of available data, and the dearth social awareness and activism prompted me to develop a research project on Germany, which finally materialised in 2018 when I began my PhD at the Faculty of Law in Turku.
My motivation to investigate Germany from a critical perspective is informed by my personal interest in accounting for the complexity of the phenomenon of femi(ni)cide, avoiding racist and xenophobic discourses on the subject. In Germany I am the ‘Other’, I could potentially be killed and the act be blamed on my ‘Latin American background’; I can be subjected to racist and xenophobic discourses to explain my killing.[9] Another driving force to perform this research was the recognition of the incredible work developed in America on femi(ni)cide since the start of the millennium and my interest in positioning this knowledge at the centre of the discussions taking place in Europe. For me, it is important to avoid perpetuating structures of North-South hierarchy in the production of knowledge.
The fact that discussions on femi(ni)cide in Germany have begun has generated various positive changes: from the social aspect, for example, activist groups and projects have been formed around the issue; in the legal and political spheres, debates have arisen about the relevance of the use of the term in these areas; and in the academic field, more research projects specifically on femi(ni)cide in Germany have begun to emerge. The fact that the subject of femi(ni)cide is gaining attention is already a hugely positive change, and hopefully this will open the door to the door to the formulation of effective strategies to address this complex problem.
[1] Radford, Jill. “Introduction.” In Femicide: The Politics of Woman Killing, edited by Jill Radford and Diana Russell, 4. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1992.
[2] Diana Russell. “Preface.” In Femicide: The Politics of Woman Killing, edited by Jill Radford and Diana Russell, xiv. Buckingham: Open University Press, 1992.
[3] Luján Pinelo, Aleida. 2018. “A Theoretical Approach to the Concept of Femi(ni)cide.” Philosophical Journal of Conflict and Violence 2, no. 1 (2018): 61.
[4] Luján Pinelo, “A Theoretical Approach,” 45.
[5] Radford, “Introduction,” 25.
[6] Radford, “Introduction,” 7.
[7] Atencio, Graciela, and Elena Laporta. “Types of Feminicide or Variants of Extreme Patriarcal Violence.” Feminicidio.net, October 15, 2012. https://feminicidio.net/types-of-feminicide-or-variants-of-extreme-patriarcal-violence/.
[8] UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime). Statement by Germany on the Investigation and Prosecution of Gender-Related Killings of Women and Girls. 2014. Last accessed July 22, 2022. https://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/IEGM_GRK_BKK/Germany_Annex.pdf.
[9] I usually recommend watching the film Naomis Reise by Frieder Schlaichs.