Remembering Marielle Franco
THREE MONTHS ON FROM HER DEATH, KATHRYN LUM LOOKS AT THE LEGACY OF A BRAVE AND UNIQUE POLITICIAN
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PHOTO WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
On 14 March 2018 in Rio de Janeiro, a local politician was travelling back from a meeting on black female activism, when she was hit by four bullets from gunmen in a car. She died instantly, as did her driver.
Marielle Franco was unique – she was one of the very few female, black, openly LGBT, feminist politicians to have made it in a world of politics very much dominated by white, wealthy, straight men. In the Rio de Janeiro assembly, 38-year-old Franco was the only black woman, and one of just seven women out of a total of 51.