Umesh Gonçalves, a co-director of the Transnational Institute’s Brazil office, said that the Brazilian government had not offered asylum to the woman at any point before the investigation started. She has since been released and deported two different times after the police searched her apartments. Her daughter, who works at a school that was located next to her house, did not hear about the investigation or the woman’s deportation.

“The police officers came with a copy of the warrant,” said Gonçalves. “They said, ‘We have a letter which states that the woman is married to the perpetrator. What are we going to do?’ Then they asked if she would marry him. She said, ‘NO!'” Gonçalves added. “That should have made us worried but no one called the police. It was like a cold hand on our necks and we had no way of knowing about it in advance.” According to the woman’s son, police never called or visited her at all in the aftermath of her arrest and deportation.

Gonçalves said that the fact that her organization’s offices are spread around eight different cities with different police forces led her organization to miss that the woman was being falsely accused and wrongly persecuted. “The problem started in Rio. The police were called because the mother had an accident and there were people who tried to stop her and hurt her,” said Gonçalves. “After that, other police officers went there and tried to find the perpetrator to interrogate and document his statements. It was so easy for them and they didn’t take a look at her life, because he was married.”

The Transnational Institute has been collecting data on the relationship between women and their attackers and has been involved in this research program since 2007. “The number of women who have been raped during these incidents is probably close to 5 percent. Many of them are survivors themselves who are not able to speak out,” said Gonçalves. “They don’t feel safe if there is even a chance of being believed. And they have no place to go to. Even if they are with the police, they don’t know why or what to expect.”