In one of Mexico’s most dangerous places for women, his students push back

The skirt stands in the middle of a rock-strewn patch in the schoolyard. As the gray plaster that the students have coated over it dries in the midday sun, their teacher, Manuel Amador, asks them to imagine wearing it, and breaking free.

It’s part of the newest protest against gender violence that he’s helping students create at this public high school in Ecatepec, about an hour north of Mexico City and one of the country’s most dangerous places to be a woman. 

One by one, the handful of teens who have stayed after school for the workshop show movements they’ve chosen to incorporate into the performance piece. The idea is that they will each wear a dried skirt