I’m not happy to write about this, but I think I should. Here in Spain, in 2018, there is something wrong with the law or how is it possible that 5 men gang raped an 18 year old girl, took her clothes and mobile telephone, sent WhatsApp videos of their crime to their friends and somehow it is legally classified as sexual abuse?
She didn’t fight back. That is key to the verdict. She closed her eyes, didn’t participate, was raped by five men (in fact one a policeman, another a soldier), was penetrated in her vagina, anus and mouth by force, was videoed, trapped in the door way they had taken her into, left naked, and survived. The year before another girl had been raped in the San Fermines fiestas but she had fought back – she was killed by her aggressor for fighting back.
The day the verdict and sentence were declared many of my Spanish friends cried or felt sick, as did I. What sort of message does this send to rape victims and future victims. What should a woman do? Fight and perhaps die or stay passive, accept that they can’t escape and try to stay alive? Also what message does it give to predators?
The group of men called themselves the Manada – the Spanish for wolfpack. The day the verdict was revealed there were many protests in Spain. I went to the one in Madrid with other thousands of people. Women and men all indignant that this could happen legally and confused at the degree of vulnerability of woman in this kind of cases.
Since then the Ministry of Justice has said it will appeal on the verdict.
Here is my video report of the protest:
Click here to see my video on YouTube.
I know I am not as well informed as some but these are my feelings and reaction. I truly hope that something can be and will be done in the laws to improve this terrible state of affairs. As the people shouted and had written on their homemade signs “No es abuso, es violacion”, – It is not abuse, it is rape.
To read more about this click here to read the BBC article.
