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Brazilian Women Wear Men's Clothes For Safety

By Kyodo News Service
Contributed by Elizabeth Parker

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil
Dec. 16, 1997


Wearing men's clothes has become the latest fashion among women in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo in an attempt to avoid gangs which attack women driving alone in the city's busy traffic, a local daily reported Tuesday.

Before leaving work and heading for home by car, many women are wearing men's garments like caps and coats and some said they will wear a phony mustache to confuse robbers, the daily O Estado de Sao Paulo reported.

"We have been doing this because women have become the main target of robbers who very seldom dare to attack male drivers," a 26-year-old secretary told the paper.

The strategy also includes avoiding earrings, bracelets and makeup and never wearing women's watches to reinforce the "masculine look" to be safe from the robbers.

The robbers who often use their own vehicles to crash into the victim's car to make them stop are being called by the local media as the "crash and rob gangs."

Many women are modifying their daily schedules to match the schedule of their colleagues in order to drive together in convoys through the city. "We are safer together," a woman said.

Increasing urban violence is a major source of concern for the authorities in Brazil's industrial heartland which has a 10 million population and lies in the southeastern part of the country.

Some women claim they have been attacked several times mainly at night when they stopped at traffic lights. They say gangs of street children also prefer to rob women because they seldom react.

Local police reported several women have been mugged and raped while driving alone in the city streets and have organized a special operation to arrest the robbers.

The fear of violence has boosted the popularity of self-defense courses, which have become the latest fad among women drivers.

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