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Hello and welcome to the Witness History Podcast on the BBC World Service

first-hand accounts of events that have shaped our world. I'm Mike Lanchin,

and now a program from our archives. In many parts of the world women still have little protection

from violent partners, but in 2006 Brazil introduced groundbreaking legislation

on domestic violence. It was called the Maria da Pena law,

named after a women's rights activist who was paralyzed by her husband after years of abuse.

In 2016, Maria told me her extremely disturbing story.

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'Peneer first met the man who would change her life so dramatically.

She was studying to be a biopharmacist in Sao Paulo.

Marcus Antonio Eredia Viviros, a school teacher, originally from Colombia, was also living there.

The two of them met through mutual friends. He was likeable, 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.

...