Feminists in Spain declared that the country is under a “feminist emergency” after a string of women were violently killed by their partners.
Protestors held demonstrations in 250 Spanish towns and cities on Friday to call for justice following a summer of brutal murders of 19 women at the hands of their present or former partners. In the same period, the country was shocked with a series of high-profile rape cases, as reported by The Guardian.
Organizers behind the protests urged participants to “turn the night purple” as a symbol of the feminist movement. Protestors called out the media and political sector for its apathy, lack of action and indifference towards the heinous crimes against women.
At 8pm local time, people gathered to partake in the demonstrations in cities including Alicante, Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, Salamanca, Seville, Tarragona, and Valencia. As of this date, 42 women were recorded after being murdered in the country under domestic violence attacks with 32 of their children left without mothers. The Spanish government recorded 1,017 women murdered at the hands of their partners since the year 2003.
Feminist Emergency, the organizers of the protests said in a statement:
“This has been a summer dominated by barbarity, murders, rapes, assault, pedophilia, and gang attacks The gender-based violence of the summer has led to the worst figures in more than a decade. We can’t let another school or parliamentary term begin as if nothing has happened. To do so would be to tolerate the intolerable … This is an emergency.”
