In September 2006, Brazil introduced ground-breaking legislation on domestic violence. It was called the Maria da Penha Law after a women's rights activist who was left paraplegic by her violent husband. Here, she tells her remarkable story.
When Maria da Penha was almost killed by her husband, there wasn't a single police station she could go to in Brazil specialising in violence against women.
"At that time we weren't even aware of this expression - domestic violence," she says. "You just had a bad husband."
It's over 40 years since Maria da Penha first encountered the man who would change her life so dramatically.
She was studying to become a bio-pharmacist in Sao Paulo when she met Marcos Antonio Heredia Viveros, a schoolteacher originally from Colombia, through mutual friends. He was likeable and helpful, and they quickly fell in love. In 1976 they were married.
After Maria finished her studies, the couple moved back to her home city of Fortaleza, on Brazil's north eastern coast, and they began a family. But the man she had fallen in love with soon began to change.
"When his Brazilian citizenship was granted, he showed his true colours," Maria recalls. "I had no idea of how to make him go back to what he was like before.
"I didn't know if he would wake up in a good mood or a bad mood. He became violent, hitting the children for no reason. That started to make me feel unsafe in my marriage."
Maria says there was no single trigger for the change in his behaviour. And anything, however big or small, would set him off.
"At the time my daughters were aged seven, five and almost two. My little one still wasn't walking. One day she was sitting on the floor and she wet herself.
"Then she got up and with her little wet hands, she tried to support herself using the wall. She got the wall wet. So he hit her and shouted at her. He really slapped her hard."
Maria's middle daughter used to suck her thumb, and he tied her hands to stop her doing it.
"I wasn't here, I was told about this later," says Maria. "When she managed to untie it, he hit her hard and put her in the shower under cold water."
As the violence continued, Maria felt trapped, isolated and alone.
"The only people who knew that I was suffering abuse were me and the girls who lived with us," she says. "I spared my family because if they knew they would have told me to get a divorce.
Sign up here with your email
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon