In 1999, the UN General Assembly declared 25 November, the anniversary of the Mirabal Sisters' death, as 'International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women'.
November 25 is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the day the three sisters were killed in opposition to the tyrannical ruler of the Dominican Republic, Rafael Trujillo.
Behind this noble cause lies a truly extraordinary story.
On November 25, 1960, three sisters Patria, Minerva, and Maria Teresa Mirabal were brutally murdered in their homeland of the Dominican Republic. Their "crime" was to oppose the terrible dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo.
Trujillo ruled the Dominican Republic with unrestrained brutality for more than 30 years. He was so cruel that his rule almost looks like a caricature of the dictator. Opponents were routinely killed, allegedly in some cases baiting sharks. Trujillo corruptly looted billions of dollars and almost inevitably named the country's highest mountain after him.
His crimes were not limited to his own country. He ordered the mass murder of some 30,000 people in neighboring Haiti, which he accused of harboring his political opponents.
Few resisted his brutality, but the Mirabal sisters resisted him. They opposed his regime first as activists and then as direct leaders of the opposition to Trujillo. Their refusal was based on their desire to restore democracy to the country. It had even become a personal matter. Minerva turned down Trujillo's sexual advances at a party in 1949.
The sisters had become symbols of resistance in the country, and this was thought to render them somewhat inviolable. Unfortunately, that would prove not to be the case. Exactly 61 years ago, Trujillo's thugs captured the sisters, strangled them, beat them to death, and put their bodies in cars, and rolled them down the mountain.
The sisters said they were ready to give up their lives for their struggle, and eventually, they gave up. But so did Trujillo. The murder of the sisters shook the nation so much that the leader was shot dead 6 months later.
While Trujillo remains a stain on humanity, the house where the sisters grew up has been turned into a museum over time, and the Mirabal sisters have been immortalized in the country's education system. Their names have been given to murals, books, plaques, and streets around the world. Films have been made about these feminist icons, who are portrayed as female Che Guevaras.