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Hundreds of red and white pairs of underwear were scattered across Brazil's most famous beach on Monday in a nationwide protest against rape.
The protest on the beach comes after a 16-year-old girl revealed that she had been allegedly gang raped by more than 30 men in late May. She said she went to her boyfriend’s home and was doped, later waking up naked and wounded in a completely different home, surrounded by men, some armed with guns.
According to a police statement, the girl made her way home and days later found out that some of the alleged rapists had posted a 40-second video of the attack on Twitter. It was then when the case captured widespread attention from media in Brazil and around the world.
According to Brazil's Telesur, the number of rapes total about 50,000 women each year.
Protest organizer Antonio Carlos Costa noted that the nearly 420 pairs of underwear represent the number of rapes that occur in Brazil every three days.
Watch the video from AFP below to view the symbolic protest, along with portraits of women who are part of a related campaign "I will never be silenced."
Social media users have used the hashtags #EstuproNuncaMais (Rape never again) and #EstuproNaoECulpaDaVitima (Rape is Not the Victim's Fault) to express their outrage against what many believe to be a culture of impunity and violence against women.
According to news reports, two men have been arrested in connection with the crime.
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