At least 24 women have been murdered in Portugal so far this year – or, more exactly, up to November 15 this year.
According to the Observatory of Murdered Women (OMA) of the Alternative and Response Women’s Union (UMAR) 16 cases occurred in intimate relationships and five in a family context. In the remaining three cases, one was due to a specific argument, another in a family context and the third ‘in another context’.
The document also reports 50 attempted murders.
Said OMA researcher Cátia Pontedeira: “The data for 2025 shows that femicides (the killing of a woman by a man) and attempted femicides continue unabated in Portugal (…) there are still successive attacks against women for the reason that they are women and resulting from previous violence, often oppression and control”.
In the opinion of Pontedeira, “in 2025, women are still not safe anywhere”, not “on public roads, in car parks, in their workplaces, in hospitals, in the homes they share with intimate partners and even in their own homes”.
So far this year, in all cases of femicide and attempted femicide, we are talking about men who attack women. In all these situations, it is not possible to determine a single profile, as the victims are “children, young women, and older women”, and the offenders range from young people to adults and older people, she said.
The researcher also pointed to the actions of the justice system, noting that there continue to be offenders “who are left free with bail measures other than preventive detention.”
Another OMA researcher, Maria José Magalhães told today’s press conference presenting the report that “the Portuguese state has failed miserably”, as there continue to be “women murdered after reporting a complaint with the authorities”, considering that there is “negligence […] by the state in relation to women’s lives”.
When asked about the fact that all the identified aggressors are men, she stressed this is “a cultural issue” and that it is necessary to “work on masculinities” with “regular intervention that is capable of changing behaviours, feelings, attitudes, perceptions and representations”.
“We need to intervene with boys and young men so that they realise that they do not need to use violence to be men. They do not need to humiliate or attack someone to feel like men,” she added.
Frederica Armada, another of the report’s authors, pointed out that often “the end of a relationship does not mean the end of violence” – with 10 cases of femicide in cases of current intimacy and six in cases of past intimacy, and in eight of the cases the victims had children, four of them young children.
Camila Iglesias, also a researcher with OMA pointed out that the figures in the report only refer to situations reported by the media in which there is “a clear intention to kill”, which is “a verifiable minimum”. There may be more cases.
On behalf of the State, the vice-president of the Commission for Gender Equality, Manuel Albano, said that the data is “worrying and yet important,” arguing that efforts have been made, particularly “in supporting structures so that they can be there on the ground,” such as the National Support Network for Victims of Domestic Violence.
Indeed, this year’s figures are in line with those of past years – which will be frustrating for all trying to improve the situation.
Last year, prime minister Luís Montenegro suggested the ‘rise in domestic violence’ was more due to the fact that more people are reporting it these days than used to in the past.
The trouble with that view is that it doesn’t explain why numbers are forever in the same ballpark.
Source: LUSA
