From 2003 to the present day, 1,372 women have been murdered in Spain by their partners or ex-partners. For those who wish to call this—and here ideology comes in, because all of this is ideology—domestic violence, we remind them that these murders occur in a context of violence that has structural roots and that turns women into victims precisely because of their condition as women.
But this figure of 1,372 women is just the tip of the iceberg: the one we see in the news, in protests, in moments of silence. The harsh reality is that, as of today, there are 109,410 women victims of gender-based violence whose cases have been recognized and registered in the VioGén system, of whom 53,818 have minors in their care.
No matter how much protection measures save lives every time a misogynistic murder occurs, an unbearable sense of frustration and failure invades us. A feeling that will only disappear when misogynistic murders disappear and, to achieve this, we must improve and expand the resources at our disposal.
There is a wide variety of resources that women suffering violence can turn to: social services of the Government of the Canary Islands, the Cabildo, and the city councils, Security Forces and Corps, the Justice Administration, specialized equality services, and, of course, associations fighting against gender-based violence. Even so, the existence of all these resources does not always translate into truly comprehensive care.
And here comes another blow of harsh reality. If for a woman it is already difficult to first recognize to herself that she is being mistreated by her husband or partner, then comes the harshness, the sadness, and the shame of going from door to door and office to office telling her story to whoever appears first. And no woman should have to tell the story of the violence she has suffered five times to receive protection.
The answer can be none other than to place the victim at the center of the process of care, protection, and accompaniment, through the creation of a one-stop shop for assistance to victims of gender-based violence.
The implementation of the single story, a mechanism capable of centralizing information, is essential, but not sufficient. Placing the victim at the center of the process means not confusing her with her history. It is not enough that her data does not have to move; it is she who must not be forced to wander through different administrations, lost among appointment requests while accumulating hours in waiting rooms.
If there are single windows for business and economic procedures, if there are single windows for renewable energies, how is it possible that there is no single window aimed at protecting and saving the lives of women?
No woman should have to make a pilgrimage from administration to administration, from form to form, and from procedure to procedure, repeating the violence she has suffered over and over again, to obtain the protection she deserves.
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