00:01The icons of Brazil, stunning beaches, tiny bikinis, and legendary parties, evoke images of paradise.
00:09But behind the idyllic imagery, Brazilian women are engaged in a fight for their lives.
00:14In Brazil, every 15 seconds, a woman is assaulted by their husband or partner.
00:19But there are women who are pushing back.
00:22I think the people want us to be obedient, and sometimes we need not to be.
00:28Women who are working to change the conversation and the legal system through art as activism and sheer dedication.
00:36We have to do something now because we are late. We are so late.
00:41We're here to witness their progress as they shape a safer space for women in their country.
00:51I had no idea this was going to be the scale of it.
00:55This is humongous.
01:00We are here to meet with one of Rio's most celebrated artists.
01:04Her name is Panmela Castro, and not only is she a master of her craft, she's using the medium of
01:10graffiti art to address one of the issues women in Brazil are facing most, which is domestic violence.
01:15I don't think I've ever seen a work this big that spans the entire wall.
01:19It's detailed. Every single spot is painted.
01:22Panmela Castro is a political feminist street artist who's been named one of 150 women who shake the world.
01:29Here it is.
01:30We're walking to her latest gallery show in Rio.
01:34Tell us about becoming a graffiti artist.
01:37I think I started making graffiti, and I think it was a desire to be a man, but not to
01:45be a man, but to have the kind of power that they have.
01:50And I started in this group of men. That time we don't have graffiti girls. And I was super masculine
01:56because I need to speak like a man, to dress like a man, to be a sex man.
02:02Then when I comprehend what was happening with me, I think that's when my art really started.
02:10In Panmela's current show, she draws on the long history of street art as an act of civil disobedience, using
02:17it as a method for challenging ideas about gender and female submission.
02:22We have a big problem with domestic violence. This problem just happens because of this culture.
02:30Most of the women that suffer domestic violence, it's because they were not obedient.
02:35I think the people want us to be obedient, and sometimes we need not to be.
02:50While Panmela's work brings attention to domestic violence in the urban landscape, those working in the legal system have also
02:57been trying to find a solution focused on protecting women who are victimized.
03:01We're going to go speak with Adriana de Mela, who's a judge who's been fighting against domestic violence for over
03:06a decade.
03:07She's also a co-creator of Project Violeta, which is an organization that helps victims of domestic violence navigate their
03:14way through Brazil's very complicated legal system.
03:18What inspired you to create Project Violeta?
03:22The Project Violeta was created two years ago to protect the woman who was suffering domestic violence.
03:30Our Brazilian law says that the woman would go to the police department to report a violence domestic violence.
03:39For the law today, she has to go and wait for a decision for four days.
03:45Yeah, it's so dangerous.
03:46Yeah.
03:47Because she can't wait. She probably will be murdered.
03:50In Brazil, it is estimated that more than 13 million women have been victims of domestic violence.
03:57Here, a woman is killed every two hours.
04:00When women come into Project Violeta, the process is focused on rapidly obtaining the decision from the courts that will
04:07lead back to her quick protection.
04:09In addition, women are provided access to a social worker and a psychologist to deal with both the practical aftermath
04:17of domestic violence and to begin the process of healing from trauma.
04:21It's very beautiful because we saw the woman, the expression of face change.
04:29It gives them hope.
04:30It gives them hope and saves their lives.
04:31What do you think it's going to take to change your culture?
04:35Education.
04:37The culture has to change.
04:40And I think, I don't know, 100 years or 200.
04:44But we have to do something now because we are late.
04:48Yeah.
04:49We are so late.
04:51While Adriana tackles the effects of the culture of domestic abuse, Pamela tries to change that culture.
05:03In 2010, Pamela started the non-profit Redename with the goal of challenging that culture through education and street art.
05:11At the moment that you put your jaw on the wall belongs to everyone who passes here.
05:17Usually I stop and I look at it and I, okay, that's a piece of me over there.
05:23It's always nice to see it.
05:26Redename holds sessions for women curious about graffiti art, which includes speakers to discuss both graffiti and women's issues, along
05:34with an open conversation about personal experiences related to female oppression.
05:44Today, Pamela has invited us to help her paint one of her pieces.
05:48Okay, we are going to paint that wall there.
05:51It's like a landmark.
05:55I think this is going to be a situation where we just kind of follow anything she does.
05:59Anything she says to do, we do.
06:02So should we start by covering up the letters?
06:04No, I'm covering everything.
06:07You can cover everything that you want.
06:13Right now we're covering the wall.
06:15With any color we're choosing?
06:17Is this yellow too bright, Pamela?
06:19It's better to use it just in the end.
06:22Okay, so this is a bad choice.
06:24It is.
06:25I have to go choose another paint.
06:28I'm just going to go cover up my yellow.
06:30Yeah, go cover up that yellow.
06:32No, no, no, this one not because it's for the contour.
06:36Damn it!
06:37Not yellow and not red.
06:40What can we do to help with this painting?
06:43No, I think nothing because I'm doing the details.
06:48So tell us a little bit about what feminism is in Brazil.
06:53I think that feminism in Brazil is a big movement.
06:57But it's a little bit divided by ideas.
07:00But I think it's something that's not just in Brazil, it's everywhere.
07:04Yeah.
07:04Different kind of philosophies.
07:08What I try to do here in Hedinami is to make a space for all kinds of ways to think
07:15about feminism.
07:16A space where the girls can come and change their ideas, change perceptions.
07:23All the possibilities for women.
07:27I think we have a big work to do.
07:30But I'm glad that here we have a space where we can be whatever we want.
07:42I think my dream is that all the women that come here could open their minds and see that they
07:51could be more than people say that they can be.
07:55It's like to open possibilities for them.
08:02Thank you very much.
