Human Dev Minister Speaks on Social Media Vicitm Shaming And Vicitm Blaming

But after dropping the charges, the mother faced serious social media backlash in the form of victim blaming and - as Ramirez put it - victim shaming. As a survivor of domestic violence herself, she explained that it generally takes women 8 attempts before they can leave an abusive partner and that by the time the abuse becomes physical, the perpetrator has already exercised control over the victim. Here's how she put it.

Thea Garcia Ramirez, Minister of Human Development
"Violence towards a partner is basically about control. And before the violence becomes physical and before there's hitting and beating, there's a lot of psychological control. There are many things that if I were given a chance to speak to other persons that have been in this situation, it's the same sort of treatment that you get. You get a lot of isolation from friends and family, and the only voice you're hearing day in, and the day out is one that tells you that you're not worthy, that you don't mean anything to anyone."

"And because no one's coming around, and a lot of times family doesn't come close because they realize that them coming close to you makes problems for you. And so, you know, they pull back a little bit and you're you're pulled away. So it's a lot of mind control and a lot of, you know, just feeding you the narrative that you can't do without them. And if you have somebody saying that to you and you're emotionally dependent on one person and to the exclusion of everybody else, you feel a deep sense of loneliness and isolation and that again, goes back and really feeds back into that emotion that you're lonely and that you have nobody and nobody wants it because the perpetrator has has isolated you from everybody that would tell you, no, you're not alone."

"And we love you. We want you. We are here for you, to support you. And so it's a physical isolation as well as a mental and emotional isolation to ensure that you depend on that one person economically, emotionally and physically and in all ways. Because it's about control. When the person who reads and when other women in, in, in the country reads, what happens to this woman and how she is being blamed for another person attacking her and her child? Do you think that that makes an environment in which you can trust anybody to come out and say, this is happening to me, and I need help?"