A gang rape shakes the foundations of Brazil’s entrenched rape culture

São Paulo—In May, a 16-year-old girl reported that she had been raped by at least 33 men armed with assault rifles and handguns in a favela, or slum, in the western part of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The girl said she believed she was drugged after she went to a party with her boyfriend on May 21. She woke up naked and wounded in a house, she said, surrounded by more than two-dozen men. The attack was so vicious it ruptured her bladder.

Only days later did she find out that her assailants had posted graphic video and images of her rape on social media. One of the alleged perpetrators posted a selfie with his tongue hanging out while the girl lay unconscious and bleeding in the background. The image was posted with the words “The state of Rio de Janeiro opens the new tunnel for the sledgehammer’s speed train.” “Sledgehammer” in this case is slang for “penis.”

Those images and videos spread like wildfire—throughout Brazil and then throughout the world. They were a shocking manifestation of what has been a longstanding, yet unspoken, horror in the country.

Five rapes an hour reported

Brazil is mostly known for its annual Carnival celebrations, world-class soccer prowess, and soap operas. But while the media is currently focused on Olympic preparations, the gang rape of the girl has helped to sharpen focus on a rape culture that is not usually acknowledged.

According to a 2014 report by an NGO called the Fórum Brasileiro de Segurança Pública (Brazilian Forum of Public Security), a rape is reported to police every 11 minutes in Brazil. In 2014, more than 47,500 rapes were reported in the country. Of those cases 61 percent of the victims are black women. But only about 35 percent of rape cases are reported to authorities at all, so the real number could be—and likely is—much, much higher.

“Those numbers reveal a serious problem in the lives of Brazilian women, as many of them are susceptible to sexual violence,” says Nadine Gasman, Brazil representative for UN Women.

Gasman told me she believes the culture of rape in the country does not exist in isolation: It is an international phenomenon, one that has to be fought by men and women, which includes people in civil society, the private sector, schools, and religious groups. Gender equality, she says, will result in a fairer world. 

The UN has pushed for more severe penalties for rapists in Brazil. News reports citing current law say that rape of an adult is punishable by a prison term of between six to 10 years, while the sentence for the rape of a minor is eight to 12 years in prison. If the victim is less than 14 years old or has special needs, the penalty goes from eight to 15 years.

On May 31, 10 days after the gang rape, the Brazilian Senate approved a law that would increase jail time by two-thirds for rape involving multiple assailants. The law also criminalizes the publication or sharing of videos or photos that portray scenes of rape. The proposal will soon be voted on by another arm of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies.

Progress inches forward

The world watched in horror as events of the gang-rape case were revealed and the investigation unfolded. Yet the lead investigator on the case fed an existing global rape culture by expressing doubt on the girl’s story in confounding ways.

The girl went to a house in the favela with her soccer player boyfriend, a female friend, and the suspect accused of recording the rape, after they attended a party, news reports said. She fell asleep and a few hours later she was taken to another house by a drug dealer, who was allegedly the first to rape her. She said she was raped again the following evening.

A selfie posted by one of the attackers.

Later she told investigators that she had been raped by more than 30 men. But Alessandro Thiers, the lead investigator, said he wasn’t convinced—even though a male voice can be heard in one of the videos stating that “more than 30 impregnated her.” (She is not pregnant, according to news reports.) Thiers was openly criticized. He had taken testimony from the suspects at the same time that the rape victim was in the building—and he made no arrests. Thiers also asked the girl if she participated in group-sex parties.

For Katiuscia Galhera, a foreign policy analyst and PhD student at São Paulo’s Universidade Estadual de Campinas, this doubt was a side effect of the misogyny and rape culture affecting the regulatory mechanisms of Brazil, she told me. Djamila Ribeiro, a local philosopher and black activist, said that police are often unprepared to deal with these situations: Many women are viewed as guilty and are mistreated while seeking help.

The girl’s lawyer, Eloísa Samy, and the public ministry asked for Thiers to be removed from the case, saying his behavior was sexist and misogynistic, according to news reports. The investigation was then put under the supervision of investigator Cristiana Bento. The girl was placed in the witness protection program because it was feared her rapists might retaliate against her; some of the men are wanted by police for ties to drug-trafficking gangs.

In late May, the girl’s boyfriend was arrested on rape accusations, but was released after police decided there wasn’t enough proof that he participated in the attack. The individual accused of recording the rape and the person who took the infamous selfie were both arrested. Once police found links between the group accused of the rape and drug-dealing activities in the region, the police’s anti-drug taskforce also joined the investigation.

News reports have cited Bento as saying that evidence at the scene showed that three men and a minor participated in the rape—not more than 30 men. Bento said the memory was “perhaps the result of her drugged state during the attack or the trauma suffered.” The investigator also said that the cell phone of one of the perpetrators helped investigators figure out the role of the suspects. More footage was found on the device in which each of the three suspects is seen determining what he will say to police, reports said.

In June, at least seven suspects were indicted on charges including statutory rape and the production and release of pornographic material with a minor, reports said.

‘A piece of trash’

News of the rape lit a fire under people in Brazil.

Protests erupted all over the country, with women and men criticizing sexism and calling for justice. Hashtags including #EstuproNaoÉCulpaDaVitima, Portuguese for “rape is not the victim’s fault,” trended on Twitter, media reported. Facebook users changed their profile photos to the female gender symbol, along with words urging an end to rape culture.

But even with this surge of activism, the country still has a long way to go. Brazil has been a democracy for 32 years. According to a 2013 study by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics Foundation, the federal agency responsible for statistical, geographic, and environmental information, the 103.5 million women in the country make up 51 percent of the population and are responsible for providing income to 37 percent of families. Yet women in Brazil are paid 30 percent less than their male counterparts and make up only 10 percent of Congress.

“It’s a modern society with a varnish of civilization that walks slowly and has an archaically mindset,” São Paulo State Senator Marta Suplicy told me. “We are very far from real comprehension and sincere respect for how to think about women and our rights to our bodies.”

In an interview with Brazilian newspaper O Globo, the girl said she wanted to see “the justice of God” in her case. “I feel like a piece of trash,” she told the paper. “It’s the stigma that hurts me the most. It is as if people are saying ‘It’s her fault. She was wearing scanty clothes.’ I want people to know that it is not the woman’s fault. You can’t blame a robbery victim for being robbed.”