{"id":48043,"date":"2022-04-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-19T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/?post_type=reports&p=48043"},"modified":"2026-11-05T15:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T15:55:09","slug":"let-her-be-heard-the-untold-stories-of-indigenous-religious-minority-women-in-mexico","status":"publish","type":"reports","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/reports\/let-her-be-heard-the-untold-stories-of-indigenous-religious-minority-women-in-mexico\/","title":{"rendered":"Let her be heard: The untold stories of indigenous religious minority women in Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mexican constitution guarantees freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) and other human rights to all its citizens. However, in practice FoRB violations are a common occurrence in certain regions across Mexico, in particular indigenous communities governed under the Law of Uses and Customs.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Law of Uses and Customs protects the right of indigenous communities to maintain their cultural and traditional methods of local governance, with the caveat that it must be applied in line with human rights guarantees in the Mexican constitution and in the international conventions to which Mexico is party. However, the Mexican government on both the federal and state levels does little to ensure that these protections are upheld.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a result, in many communities a religious majority attempts to enforce religious uniformity, with consequences ranging in severity for members of religious or belief minorities who do wish to practise a faith of their choosing or no faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSW has worked on FoRB issues in Mexico, including those experienced by indigenous people, for over a decade. In 2021, in response to a dearth of information and analysis by monitoring bodies and experts regarding the unique experiences of indigenous religious minority women in Mexico, CSW carried out an investigation into whether the ways in which indigenous religious minority women in Mexico experience FoRB and other human rights violations are gender-specific and\/or gendered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between March and June 2021, CSW\u2019s in-country partners held ten gatherings of indigenous women from religious minority communities in the states of Chiapas, Hidalgo, Guerrero, Jalisco and Oaxaca, to listen to their stories. During these gatherings, CSW\u2019s in-country female Data Collector utilised three research methods: semi-structured interviews, art-based participatory method, and focus group discussions with participatory ranking. Twenty-five indigenous women and two mestizas women were interviewed and feature in this report.\u00a0As the interviews took place, the rest of the women participants (known hereafter as participants) were encouraged to use paint and\/or embroidery to illustrate their \u2018hopes for the future\u2019 on a plain canvas bag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This research found that many types of FoRB violations appear to affect both men and women equally. These include being barred from holding or participating in religious services, from receiving visitors of the same religious group, and from sharing religious beliefs publicly; as well as forced participation in religious majority activities, and harassment when participating in religious services. Other intersecting forms of discrimination against participants that do not seem to be gender-specific include the denial of burial rights and the right to register a birth, threats to or attacks on property and land, forced displacement, and the denial of access to basic services, all of which can create barriers to paid and unpaid work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A few types of discrimination that appear to affect religious minority women disproportionately or exclusively include barriers to benefiting from government programmes aimed at women, as well as the denial of prenatal healthcare services to pregnant women because of their religious beliefs.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

While most forms of discrimination mentioned by research participants seem to have been experienced by their entire family, rather than being specific to them as women, the unspoken psychological and physical impact of FoRB violations on religious minority women in Mexico must not be overlooked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It became clear through the course of the research that the way in which indigenous women and men are affected by some of the same FoRB and associated human rights violations appears to be gendered, i.e., shaped by their gender-based roles and responsibilities within their households and communities. This was made most apparent in how the participants reported that religiously-motivated attacks on property and denial of access to basic services affect indigenous men and women\u2019s ability to complete income-generating and unpaid work, usually divided along gender lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many participants shared how basic domestic responsibilities such as cooking, cleaning, and washing clothes become extremely challenging when their access to water and electricity is blocked because of their family\u2019s religious beliefs. This type of violation can also have implications for health, with women being forced to wash, cook with and consume untreated water, for example from rivers; or having to walk significant distances to and from a water source while carrying heavy objects such as jugs of water or baskets of wet laundry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several participants also alluded to the knock-on effect that discrimination against religious minority children has on them as mothers, with some taking on more work on top of their regular household responsibilities, to instruct their children after they were denied access to education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, several participants implied that religious minority men are disproportionately affected by certain FoRB violations, and some participants explicitly stated that indigenous men are subject to religiously-motivated violence more often than women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In indigenous communities across Mexico, men and women are included on a community task list and expected to perform services for their community. However, the participants\u2019 accounts suggested that religious minority men are much more likely to be assigned roles within religious majority functions, and then subjected to arbitrary detention for not participating. This is likely because, in many cases, adult men represent their family at community assembly meetings as the perceived \u2018head\u2019 of their household. Single women, including widows, may be subject to more discrimination than married or young women still living at home with their parents, but CSW was unable to draw any significant conclusions on this theory as most participants were married.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A culture of impunity surrounds the majority of FoRB and related human rights violations in Mexico, where 94.8% of reported cases go unpunished. The true percentage is likely to be even higher, given the number of individuals who are unable to report cases due to linguistic and educational barriers. This high level of impunity and the lack of protection granted by state officials, who often side with those of the majority religion, was a common complaint among participants. 18 participants (67%) indicated that they are unable to access justice following experiences of discrimination and\/or violence. Most participants specified that the local authorities are either the perpetrators of, complicit in or dismissive of these incidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some participants have accessed justice mechanisms, with varying degrees of effectiveness, following interventions by bodies such as the National Human Rights Commission, state human rights commissions and Offices of Religious Affairs at the state government level, as well as through legal cases. However, the persistent lack of intervention by the state governments to uphold FoRB is a clear indication that, in general, government officials, especially at the state level, continue to misunderstand FoRB and view FoRB violations as community issues or minor \u2018problems\u2019 rather than violations of fundamental human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It is important to note that many of the experiences shared by the participants had occurred over a span of years, in some cases over generations. This is reflective of the wider issue of FoRB violations in indigenous communities, which the Mexican government has failed to address in any effective way, dating back decades.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It does not appear that growing religious diversity will be a solution. Rather, a culture has been allowed to develop where it is accepted and even expected that a majority at the local level has the right to enforce religious uniformity. This culture has been strengthened by the strategy of some state governments to \u2018resolve\u2019 cases of religious intolerance, by establishing new communities exclusive to the affected religious minority. In some cases, those who were once a religious minority now find themselves a majority and have embraced their \u2018right\u2019 to enforce religious uniformity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this reason, although all the women who participated in this research identify as Protestant Christians, the findings of the report have implications for those of all faiths and beliefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download a copy of the report using the buttons below:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

English<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Spanish<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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