Brazil's President Rousseff Defends Journalist Who Received Rape Threats

Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff speaks during a ceremony to present six new ministers to her cabinet, at the Planalto Presidential Palace, in Brasilia, Brazil, Monday, March 17, 2014. President Rousseff announced changes in her Cabinet with an eye on the October elections in which some of her former ministers will run for Congress and regional government posts. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

São Paulo (AP) – Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has issued a defense of a Brazilian journalist who says she has received rape threats after launching a campaign against rape on her Facebook page.

Rousseff sent a Twitter post Monday saying that journalist "Nana Queiroz deserves all my solidarity and respect." She adds that "No woman deserves to be a victim of violence, whether it be physical or in the form of intimidation."

Queiroz launched her campaign in February after the release of a government survey showed that 65 percent of those questioned said that women who wear revealing clothing deserve to be raped.

The "social perception indicators survey" was conducted between May and June by the government's Applied Economic Research Institute, which questioned 3,810 people. The margin of error was 5 percentage points.

The survey also showed that 58 percent of those questioned felt there would be fewer rapes if women knew "how to behave."

Queiroz asked women to post topless photos of themselves on Facebook but covering their breasts and holding signs that read "I don't deserve to be raped." About 20,000 women showed their support for Queiroz's cause by posting photographs of themselves on Facebook.

Queiroz said that she also received several online rape threats.

"If you could see the number of threats I have received and angry messages from women saying I should be raped, you would believe the findings of the survey," Queiroz told the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper. "I am very scared."