The data now released by the Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality reveals a reality that deserves deep reflection: for the first time, there are more children than women sheltered in the National Network for Support to Domestic Violence Victims. At the end of the first half of this year, 688 children were sheltered, compared to 681 women.
More than numbers, these data represent children torn from their contexts, from their schools, from their friends, and reveal that often minors are the true silent protagonists of domestic violence. The relocation of minors for shelter is frequently higher than that of women, which raises questions about the role of mothers in the decision to leave violence situations.
This phenomenon highlights the so-called paradox of protection, where the victim leaves the home but the aggressor remains. Portuguese law allows aggressors to maintain parental power, which can hinder women's departure from violence situations. The protection of children does not always coincide with the protection of their mothers, creating a complex scenario for the victims.
The article alerts to the need to look at these statistics not just as data, but as real stories of children and women who need adequate responses and a support network that can effectively protect all victims of this scourge.
