Officials in the Mexican city of Chihuahua have banned the performance of songs with misogynistic lyrics, reports The New York Times.
Mayor Marco Bonilla announced the law in a Facebook video last week, saying it bans the performance of any song that promotes violence against women or encourages discrimination, marginalization, or exclusion. Recently, seven out of 10 calls in Chihuahua have involved domestic violence, according to Bonilla.
“Violence against women has reached levels that we could consider like a pandemic,” he said. “We can’t allow this to happen, and we also can’t allow this to be normalized.” There are ongoing protests across the state of Chihuahua in response to a recent rise in femicide.
Fines will range from 674,000 pesos (or about $39,000) to 1.2 million pesos ($71,000). Based on Bonilla’s message, it’s unclear how the ban will be enforced or who will impose the fines. According to Blanca Patricia Ulate Bernal, the city councilwoman who proposed the ban, the money from the fines will go to a women’s institute in Chihuahua and a confidential women’s shelter.
Ulate Bernal said in her own Facebook post last week that the law applies to concerts and other events in the city requiring a municipal permit, adding that it was meant to help women have the right “to enjoy a life free of violence.”
The ban was approved roughly one month after Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador blasted a genre of songs called corridos tumbados (or trap ballads) for allegedly glorifying drug smugglers and violence. “We’re never going to censor anyone,” he said at a news conference. “They can sing what they want, but we’re not going to stay quiet.”
This isn’t the first time the city of Chihuahua has outlawed music based on its content. Back in 2012, Los Tigres del Norte were banned for performing narcocorridos, or songs dedicated to drug traffickers. Officials cited drug violence and also fined concert organizers 20,000 pesos (or about $1,600 at the time).
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