Gender violence in the Pentecostal evangelical world: women take 10 years to denounce

Immersing herself in the Pentecostal Evangelical world to deal with one of the most radical experiences of silence, discrimination and female invisibilization, the next Friday, June 3 in Mori Recoleta Theatre, the outstanding company Lafamiliateatro Premieres Levites. Written by Paly Pavez, the work that has the financing of the National Fund of the Arts, Regional Scope 2020; constitutes the first female dramaturgy of the group, generating one of the most important milestones in its 18 years of trajectory
The transformation that the situation of women has experienced in recent decades has had significant effects for Chilean women, but the challenges are still many.
From the spokeswoman of the theater company they point out that, “if women in civil society take an average of seven years to denounce acts of violence, in the ecclesial world, this reality extends to 10 years, if it is ever denounced”.  According to Pastor Gustavo Robles, the reasons are related to shame, the sadness of failure, the fear of offending God or disobeying their spiritual leaders who have taught them and exhorted them to be patient and hope that God will perform a miracle that will change their aggressors.
In the particular case of the Chilean Pentecostal evangelical church, women suffer one of the most radical experiences of silencing, discrimination and invisibilization, since they are not recognized as moral subjects, but considered minors who need male spiritual guides to lead them along the path of morality. In this way, the male feels divinely legitimized to impose his will, limiting his functions to the domestic sphere. In addition, women are not considered owners of their own bodies, being controlled by confessors, spiritual directors, husbands, etc.
Based on more than two years of research and the playwright’s own experience, Levites, which has the direction of Eduardo Luna and Alexis Moreno Venegas, tells the story of a female choir of a small Church in the commune of San Bernardo, which, after the arrival of a new member and the mystery that encloses the prolonged absence of its director, will share their ways of life, contrasting the particular relationship that each of them has with Pentecostal doctrine.
“I am a canuta, I am a Christian, I am an actress and, from my trench, which is the theater; I wanted to tell about this part of my life, to show the Pentecostal Evangelical world that I arrived at when I was 9 years old and in which, of course, I had beautiful moments, but also other bitter ones, especially because violence was normalized through sermons and biblical texts taken out of context …”, explains its playwright, Paly Pavez, who is also a pate of the cast that complete the actresses Carolina Castro Faúndez, Belén Herrera Riquelme and Pamela Lizama Aguilar.
“This is my origin and today I embrace it more than ever, because it allowed me to realize what I didn’t want for my life and also to find my own relationship with God… Levites it moved supernaturally and it was she who chose me to write it, as well as chose those who should interpret it, design it, musicalize it, direct it, produce it, disseminate it and I hope it will allow us to denounce those who insist on silencing women through religion, “he concludes.

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Original source in Spanish