NEWSWEEK
A woman has woken up from a month-long coma and accused her husband of trying to kill her, according to reports, and her husband is on the run.
Dara Cristina de Andrade Rossato, 27, from the Franca area of Brazil’s Sao Paulo region, had been in a coma following an attack on May 26. Violence against women is prevalent in Brazil and dozens of are assaulted every hour, according to a gender violence study carried out by the Brazilian Public Security Forum in 2022.
Rossato had her legs, face, and hands burned when her husband “set her on fire”, according to EPTV, and police are searching for her husband.
After waking up from her coma, Rossato said that the attack was a result of her husband’s “machismo” and that he wanted to kill her. At the time, he told authorities that he was in the bathroom at the time of the incident and came out when he heard her yelling.
The case was originally marked as a domestic accident until authorities spoke to relatives and the neighbors who overheard the fight between the couple. Now, Rossato’s husband has been charged with domestic violence and attempted femicide, according to EPTV.
“We have information that, in fact, a moment before, neighbors heard the couple fighting inside the residence,” said Franca police chief Marcio Murari.
“Given the seriousness of the facts, and especially, of the girl who is hospitalized at the Hospital das Clinicas in Sao Paulo, we ask for precautionary arrest.”
According to EPTV, an affiliate of Rede Globo, Rossato said: “What I’m going through here is the result of him, the result of his machismo. He even hit me, I just want him to go to jail.”
Prevalence of Domestic Violence in Brazil
The study by the Brazilian Public Security Forum found that 7.4 million women in the country suffered some type of violence which includes punches, slaps, and kicks. The study said this represented 14 women being assaulted per minute.
The study also found that 18.6 million Brazilian women were victims of some type of violence in 2021, which represents an estimated 28.9 percent of the female population.
In the U.S., intimate partner violence is considered to be a serious public health problem by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The CDC said that more than 61 million women had experienced psychological aggression by an intimate partner in their lifetime.
It added that one in five homicide victims in the U.S. are killed by an intimate partner and that more than half of female homicide victims in the country are killed by a current or former male intimate partner.
The CDC continued: “The lifetime economic cost associated with medical services for IPV-related injuries, lost productivity from paid work, criminal justice, and other costs, is $3.6 trillion.
“The cost of IPV over a victim’s lifetime was $103,767 for women and $23,414 for men.”
Newsweek has contacted the Sao Paulo regional police force for comment via email.
