This November 25th, more than any other, for political and also personal reasons -the personal is political- I accumulate data and reasons to continue fighting and demanding a truly egalitarian society free of sexist violence against women.
Inequality is the cause of the violence that is exerted against women, it occurs at different levels and degrees of intensity -in some cultures and territories it is higher than in others- and this has been the case from the very moment of birth, because the cause is none other than the consideration given to girls and women for the mere fact of being so, and that even today, in societies like ours that are supposed to be more advanced, we have not been able to eradicate.
We presume in our country to have achieved legal equality, and that the challenge is to make it effective, but even that is not true, you do not have to go far, just take a look at the press of the last week to verify how far we still are, because there is no legal equality as long as there are sentences like the one we have just received in these last days, one of them dictated by the same court that condemned 'La Manada' -which we remember considered the facts as sexual abuse and not as rape- and that in this case, given what is considered proven facts, the attack of a man against his wife, first with a knife and then in an attempted strangulation, with the aggravating circumstance that these facts occur in front of his children of three and six years of age, and even recognizing that it is a case of 'attempted homicide', ends up sentencing the aggressor to 10 months in prison for 'occasional mistreatment'. The sentence considerably reduces the requests of the Prosecutor's Office, which asked for eight and a half years in prison, and 10 of removal from the victim, and the private prosecution, 10 years in prison, 12 of removal also to the children and suspension of parental authority during the time of the sentence.
Last week, we also learned with astonishment that an aggressor who was denounced by his ex-partner for trying to murder her by stabbing her with a knife was released after 15 months of provisional imprisonment. The proven facts were of no use either, as the surviving victim states: "What they imply with this sentence is that, thanks to the fact that I defended myself and he did not stab me with the knife, it is not interpreted as attempted murder. On the other hand, if I had not defended myself, he would have stabbed me and killed me... In order for him to be guilty of trying to kill me: does he have to kill me?".
In the Canary Islands, so far this year, we have the alarming figure of seven femicides, four women and three creatures, victims of sexist violence that does not cease or take into account ages - Are women sufficiently protected by the laws and by those who have to apply them against sexist violence?
And if we refer to sexual violence, the panorama is even more desolate, let us remember the sentence of the Audiencia de Lleida, also a few days ago, which has sentenced a uncle and his nephew to four and a half years in prison for crimes of "sexual abuse" of a woman with whom they had sexual relations, without her consent, on August 17, 2017, and this despite the fact that the Prosecutor's Office was asking for 15 years for a continued crime of sexual assault.
Neither equality, nor equity, nor justice, we are still very far from achieving the society respectful of human rights to which we aspire, in which women are treated equally in all areas and enjoy the same freedoms both in the streets, at work and in the privacy of our homes. We said it loud and clear in the massive demonstrations of March 8 of this year, "no means no" and "only yes means yes", what part of this do not understand the men who pretend to have sex at all costs with a woman who does not want them?
A society that allows the sexual education of its adolescents, girls and boys, to be done through an absolutely sexist and patriarchal pornography, which promotes the culture of rape, is not egalitarian. A society that does not consider that both women and men are sexual subjects with the same right to desire and pleasure is not egalitarian, that we no longer even value the concept of "consent" because in the 21st century women in sex do not want to resign ourselves, or give in or "consent" when what we want is to "feel with", nor "please" in sex, when what we want is sex "with pleasure".
We claim the right to move from "consented sex" to sex "with meaning", and the only meaning we admit as valid is that it is exercised from freedom and desire, for pure pleasure.
Therefore, this November 25 we take to the streets and denounce a system that is still far from guaranteeing effective equality between women and men. We denounce an obsolete and imprecise legislation that allows a sexist and patriarchal interpretation and application of justice. We denounce the lack of resources to invest in specialized training in gender matters, both in legal operators, security forces, and in the field of Education.
We claim our rights to live peacefully and without fear, in a just and egalitarian society that guarantees respect for all our rights. Because the street and the night are also ours, because when they threaten, abuse or attack one of us, we, in the face of the justice that prejudges us, stand up and say "sister, I do believe you". Because we owe this struggle to all those who today cannot go out to the streets to demonstrate and shout so that there is not one more. Because we want ourselves alive!
By María del Río, Secretary of Feminisms, Equality and LGTBI of Podemos Canarias
