Brazil’s minister for women believes teaching gender equality encourages domestic violence and that the focus should instead be on encouraging boys to show respect by “bringing flowers to girls”.

Damares Alves, who has previously said she wants to bring in social change ensuring “boys wear blue and girls wear pink”, argued that teaching children about gender equality came with a pitfall.

"If they think that boys and girls are equal, as was preached in the past by some 'ideologies,' boys will think 'since girls are equal they can handle being hit," she said.

Instead, boys had to be taught that while women had equal rights, they are different and “need to be loved”.

More than 4,500 women were murdered in Brazil last year, with roughly one in every four of those murders considered a case of femicide.

Ms Alves was appointed by right-wing strongman Jair Bolsanaro, who earlier this week found himself caught up in an internet scandal after sharing a pornographic video to Twitter.

Mr Bolsonaro shared the video to make a point about carnival celebrations in Brazil, which he believes are overly hedonistic. But the tactic backfired, with the media reporting him with disgust and branding him “a disgrace”.