Religious beliefs and practices in the application of maria da penha law

The deployment of the law 11.340 in 2006 in Brazil, known as the Maria da Penha Law, represented a major advance in the claims of the feminist movement and in women's rights. The law considers all acts of physical, moral, psychological and sexual violence against women, within the context of intra-family and domestic relationships, as crimes. However, its application by women in situations of violence have faced difficulties due to the resistance of people in general and even of public officials in the police and in judicial institutions, who should make the law be complied. These resistances are caused, among several reasons, by conservative religious beliefs existing in the Brazilian patriarchal culture and prevent the exercise of full citizenship by women. The analysis of interviews with law and sentences operators, expressive of the national scene, aims to show the logic and the content existing behind such backward practices in the face of an original and innovative law in the Brazilian context of social struggles; an iniciative praised around the world.