Hello and welcome to the witness podcast with me Mike Lanchen.

And today we're going back to September of 2006

when Brazil introduced groundbreaking legislation on domestic violence.

It was called the Maria da Pena law, named after a women's rights

activist who was left paraplegic by her violent husband. This is her story.

Listeners may find part of what she says, disturbing. When I was almost killed by my husband there wasn't a single police station I could go to in

Brazil specializing in violence against women. At that time we weren't even

aware of this expression, domestic violence. You just had a bad husband. It's over 40 years since Maria D'Pena first met the man who would

change her life so dramatically. She was studying to be a biopharmacist in Sao Paulo.

Marcus Antonio Erereira Viviros, a school teacher, originally from Colombia, was also living

there. The two of them met through mutual friends. He was

likable, helpful, and they quickly fell in love. And in 1976 they got married.

After Maria finished her studies the couple moved back to

her home city of Fortalesa on Brazil's northeastern coast and they began a family.

But the man she'd fallen in love with soon began to change.

When his

true colors, I had no idea of how to make him go back to what he was like before.

I didn't know if he would wake up in a good mood or a bad mood.

He became violent, hating the children for no reason.

Maria says that there was no single trigger for the change in his behaviour,

and anything however big or small would set him off.

At the time my daughters were aged 7, 5 and almost 2.

...