Eva, survivor of gender violence: "One day he grabbed me by the neck and that's when I thought I wasn't seeing my son anymore"

This year, for 25N, EPSocial dedicates several articles to victims who have suffered abuse at the hands of partners or ex-partners and have been able to get out of this situation and tell their experience.

   MADRID, 22 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Eva (not her real name) is a woman survivor of gender violence committed by her ex-spouse. However, after years of suffering she decided to put an end to the situation she was experiencing and go to the Alanna Association, where she has received help and support. Now, on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women which is celebrated this November 25, she shares her case with the aim of making sexist violence visible.

The Government Delegation against Gender Violence has recorded a total of 52 female fatalities so far this year, two more than in all of 2022. In addition, in 2023 there have been 29 attempted homicides for this reason, as revealed by the Prosecutor of the Violence Against Women Chamber, Teresa Peramato, in an interview with Europa Press. Information that she has considered "valuable", since it can provide data, until now unknown, by the survivors of these acts.

In this sense, the president of the Observatory against Domestic and Gender Violence of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ), Ángeles Carmona, has revealed in an interview with Europa Press that about 10,000 cases of women with injuries are investigated each year in Spain. serious due to sexist violence.

Specifically, Eva, in statements to Europa Press, says that for her it all started when her ex-partner was bothered by her meeting friends, going to see her family, or wearing certain types of clothes, but she indicates that "the worst "came when she became pregnant for the first time.

"When I got married, I got pregnant for the first time, but I had an abortion. At that time, he told me that I wasn't even worth having children. Later, when I saw that I couldn't fit again, I convinced him to do in vitro fertilization. and he threatened me, telling me that if anyone found out that we were going to have a child like that, he would kill me," she says.

In this line, she explains that she was "scared", since she could not share what was happening to her with anyone. However, she states that it just so happened that a month before the in vitro process was performed, she became pregnant. "It was a horrible pregnancy, he gave me a terrible time because he wanted me to continue cleaning and doing things, even though he had to be resting," she explains.

Eva also explains that the strongest episodes came after having her son and highlights the moment she experienced one day, when she decided to tell her ex-spouse to help her with the child. "He grabbed me by the neck, lifted me out of bed and then I thought that I wasn't seeing my son anymore, that I wasn't telling him that day," he says, adding that the minor "started screaming, crying loudly" and that's when he let her go. "I have always said it, my son saved my life," she says.

He also explains that, on another occasion, he beat him because the child, who had colic, "would not stop crying." "She left me lying on the ground," she says. Furthermore, she remembers how when they were watching television and reported on a death due to gender violence, he threatened her: "The next one is going to be you."

In any case, it was the last threat that made Eva decide to leave the family home with her son in her arms. "He yelled at me 'I'm going to kill you, I swear you won't get out of here today,'" she emphasizes.

The sentence against Eva's attacker, to which Europa Press has had access, states that her ex-spouse was sentenced to eleven months in prison for a crime of habitual abuse in the area of ​​gender violence, the deprivation of the right to possession and carrying of weapons for a period of 2 years and 9 months and to refrain from approaching within 200 meters of the victim.