Indigenous and rural woman know and promote gender equality and their individual and collective rights, contributing to the construction of a life free of violence and racism. The project focusses on support and training of indigenous and rural women and prevention of violence against them, and strengthening the association’s structure.
Directly involved: 329 women and 70 men. Indirectly involved: the project will reach up to 21.100 inhabitants of the departments of Quetzaltenango, Chimaltenango, Jutiapa, Escuintla, Santa Rosa, Guatemala, Sololá, Totonicapán, Quiche and Alta Verapaz.
Women in Guatemala, especially indigenous and rural women, are restricted in their rights and are exposed to multidimensional violence due to exclusionary policies of the racist, patriarchal and classist State. Also, the average schooling of women in Guatemala is 5.3 years (INE,2018) which exposes them to poverty, economic dependence and limited job opportunities. The situation intensified through the pandemic with increasing Gender violence manifesting itself in all levels (including femicides). To build a just society in which women enjoy lives free of racism and violence, reducing Guatemala’s alarming gender gap is vital. In the Gender Inequality Index in 2019 Guatemala was ranked 119 out of 162 countries (UNDP, 2020). Herein MIRIAM encourages empowerment and autonomy, so that indigenous and rural women promote gender equality, their rights from the deconstruction of colonial, patriarchal and racist thoughts and the support of conditions for a full life free of violence and racism.
MIRIAM Association for the intellectual promotion of women is an indigenous women's organization, led by professional Mayan women from different academic disciplines, who support the transformation of society towards more social justice, gender equity and revaluation of Mayan knowledge and culture from the grassroots.