Advocacia insurgente e o combate à violência de gênero: uma experiência na Assessoria Jurídica Popular da Casa de Referência da Mulher Tina Martins

Abstract

The present research is guided by the question: how did I become a popular feminist advocate? This is a narrative of my experience as a lawyer at the Popular Legal Advisory at the Tina Martins Women's Reference House, a house in Belo Horizonte/MG that works with women in situations of violence and/or social vulnerability. I seek to highlight, in the tensions verified in the field, elements that help to build paths for feminist theories-practice of law. Thus, the objectives are to relate the activities of the Popular Lawyers to the work flow of Tina Martins, as well as to identify challenges we find in acting with violence against women and attempts at other possible constructions in insurgent lawyering. It so happens that the search for helping women in situations of violence encounters several obstacles to accessing justice marked by gender, race and class inequalities, both in the articulation of the public policy network and in the justice system. The use by lawyers of the justice system and the possible and available instruments coexists with the strategies and differentials of feminist advocacy as an attempt to establish services marked by attentive listening, welcoming, empathy, respect for women's autonomy. In addition, there are other actions in Popular Lawyering, such as the construction of spaces for legal-political training that involve disputes over juridic narratives. Thus, it is a proposal for the construction of law based on a thinking-feeling-acting, marked by affection, ethical-political commitment and collectivity, elements that characterize the feminist advocacy constructed in Tina and in the present research. It is important to say that the dissertation is based on criticisms of feminist epistemologies and decolonial feminisms, being guided by the principle-concepts: experience, location, responsibility and commitment. Thus, one of the objectives is to question and dispute the possible ways of producing knowledge about law. Finally, the research methods included conducting semi-structured interviews, participant observation with a field diary and photographs from 2017 to 2021, as well as bibliographic and documentary analysis.