By Diana Cariboni for openDemocracy
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL - In 2017 Paraguay became the world’s first country to ban gender issues from school education – with help from US conservatives.
When María Amarilla was eleven years old, she was sexually abused by a family member. “For years I remained silent because I didn’t know it was wrong and didn’t know whom to talk to,” she told openDemocracy.
The abuse “lasted for a while, and when my school organised a spiritual retreat I tried to talk to someone, but everything the girls heard there was about our ‘sins . . .