Today marks the 25th Annual International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.  Here is the story behind why this particular day was chosen to remind the world that violence against women should stop.

November 25th commemorates the day of the brutal assassination of ‘the three Mirabal sisters’ (Patria, Antonia, and Minerva Mirabal) in 1960 by then Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo. The sisters were political activists who staunchly opposed Rafael’s dictatorship, and romantic advances.

La Mariposas

The sisters grew up in an upper class environment, with a wealthy businessman father. When Trujillo took control of the country, their family lost it all. Minerva studied law, but when she refused Rafael’s romantic advances, he decreed that she be allowed to receive her degree, but not a practitioners license.

The three sisters eventually formed a resistance group called the Movement of the Fourteenth of June. They were known in the underground political movement as ‘the butterflies’ (La Mariposas), the name that later inspired a film adaptation of their story (In The Time Of Butterflies, 2001) which featured Salma Hayek as Minerva Mirabal.

Throughout their resistance, they and their husbands were repeatedly imprisoned and tortured. Eventually, Trujillo decided to get rid of them once and for all. On November 25, 1960, he sent men to intercept the three women after the women had visited their husbands in prison. The unarmed sisters were led into a sugarcane field, then executed.

However, the plan backfired, and Trujillo (who thought he had removed the source of his problems) was assassinated 6 months later as a result of public outrage to the killing of the sisters.

On December 19, 1999, the United Nations General Assembly selected this day as the annual day for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and the beginning of the 16 days of Activism against Gender Violence. The 16 days days end on December 10, which is the International Human Rights Day.