I get emotional when I tell my story. Despite being painful, I am grateful to be alive and not become a statistic of femicide. I was born and raised in the Calafate community in Salvador. Everyone here knows me, and it was in this place that other women and I created the Women's Collective of Calafate, a group that aims to mobilize the community's residents to secure their rights.

Even though I was very active in the feminist movement, I got involved in an abusive relationship. First, there were psychological abuses, and then the physical ones. One night, he insisted that he wanted to sleep with a bedsheet, but that bedsheet was dirty. He not only assaulted me but also took a weapon and forced me to wash the bedsheet and dry it with an iron so that he could sleep. Another time, I had a meeting with the Collective, and I left the pasta and sauce ready for him to heat up. He refused to do it because he thought it was my obligation. When I came home, I was punched and ended up losing some teeth. In 2005, due to one of the assaults, I went to the police station to report it. At that time, the Maria da Penha Law didn't exist yet, and nothing was done effectively.

The emotional dependency I had in that relationship was significant. After the assaults, he would apologize, promise to change, and I would end up being moved by it. For years, I lived in contradiction: I would tell women not to accept violence, but I was experiencing it at home. I asked my orixá for strength to break free from that cycle of violence, and I believe that he heard me. Over time, I understood that I don't need a relationship to validate myself and that what I went through doesn't invalidate my activism. I continue my work with the Women's Collective of Calafate and participate in the Brazilian Women's Articulation. Beyond that, today my daughter, who is my pride, is also an activist for women's rights.

I am deeply grateful to the "Orixá Tempo" (spiritual entity representing time, the passage of time, and the cyclical nature of life) for being alive today and at the best moment of my life.

*This was written based on the story of Marta Leiro.