"She turned out to be a feminist. No, I've escaped from the cage," @Srtabebi.
There has been much talk that 2018 was the year of women. Well, I'm sorry, but no. 2018 has been the year of women. And I think 2019 will be too. And that of allied men. I think this will be our century. I think everything changes. Or at least it is in our hands and voices to change.
The reality that does not change is sexist murders. They are still repeated too often, too many murders. 97 only this year 2018 that says goodbye according to feminicidio.net.
The day Laura Luelmo, my namesake and that of so many, almost my age, representing so many others, was found dead, we already expected the feminist wave of support and sorority, the networks were filled with messages of indignation and anger because no matter how many times it happens, that does not change, they keep killing us.
They will say that we have a law against gender violence, that there is a State pact against sexist violence, but no. That doesn't work because we already see that it doesn't work. The only thing that can begin to alter this cycle of violence against women and murders for the mere fact of being women is education and protection. There are improvements in protection systems, effectiveness and control of restraining orders, ease in reporting, security even before there are reports. And for this, only will and resources are needed, material and human. Like everything; it's a matter of money. Of budgets. So yes, it is also a political problem. And political blindness delays real measures so that they don't kill us. So as not to be next. But above all, education is needed. Education with a gender perspective in all areas. This is not a simple or tele-directed fight, it is a change of social concept in which finally everyone is people and we are all at the same level. Training for the Police and State security forces, feminist training in Justice at all levels, education in equality in the public administration and teachers in all grades of education. Of course, in a mandatory way. That is also a matter of euros and fewer ties and minutes of silence and more moving so that there are fewer news of murders of women.
The day of Luelmo's murder, I wrote on Twitter: "Let me know when you arrive. Keys in hand before arriving home and mobile in the other. Walk fast looking back. Get scared with any noise or presence, with the darkness, with a car that follows you. Already at home. I'm fine. I'm still breathing."
There are many of us who have spent half our lives hearing and saying "Let me know when you arrive", "I'll accompany you to the door or the car", "I'll drop you off at home and wait for you to enter", "don't go alone", "take out the key before getting out of the taxi or the bus", "don't go down the dark road" and specifically us, the Canarian women, "don't go up alone on pilgrimage or Carnival nights".
All our lives protecting ourselves, avoiding places, hiding from certain environments or going with fear or simply with uncertainty. Don't men want this to stop? Of course they want it, and we want them in this fight. Feminism does not segregate, does not kill or tie.
There is no paranoia in what I have been hearing since I was old enough to leave home alone. I hear it from my mother, from my father, from my grandmother, from my friends and from my partners... The merit of a woman who goes out on the street cannot be to continue breathing.
The merit is to raise awareness among people. Men and women. Young and old. And it fills me with pride to see more and more young girls in the demonstrations on March 8, in the concentrations when we shout, after another death, 'Not One Less', or after another sexist sentence from the patriarchal justice 'Sister, I do believe you'. I, another Laura of so many, at her age did not see the problem. Sexist violence did not appear on television, it was not talked about, there were no figures or laws. Today yes.
The merit is not only in going out on the street, it is in making visible the situations of vulnerability and inequality that women suffer for the mere fact of being so. It is in ending the prejudices of the size of my skirt, my neckline, or my sexual freedom to move on to talk about how old stereotypes and gender roles must be overcome. And overcome them among everyone. For us it is not always easy either. For nobody.
Of how care is a matter for both sexes. Of how sexuality is diverse and must be accepted as such. Of how sex should be enjoyed from empathy and consent and not from ignorance and silence, as a taboo that should not be.
And what a coincidence, that everything I'm talking about is nuanced, improved and cured with education. Education is the basic form of social openness. A form of mutual knowledge. A basis for respect. And education now needs more feminism than ever.
And the fact is that feminism has many challenges ahead right now. Sexist violence must be stopped. Different policies must be forced. Different treatment of the media in the face of murders, rapes or gangs. Probably we will also have to stop old policies that we already thought were overcome that are again pillars of the conservative parties that threaten the freedoms of women, and of all people. Antifeminism cannot advance, we only want to live, we only want equality, we only want to decide ourselves, that no one snatches our body or our opinion with their locks.
The Spanish and European right and far right will have to be reminded this coming March 8, 2019 that we are a river that does not go back, that we are a tide of women in the fight against inequality, violence, and female precariousness.
They will have to be reminded that our merit is not to continue breathing. That our merit is to continue in the fight.
By Laura Fuentes Vega, Secretary of Communication of Podemos Canarias and candidate for Tenerife to the Parliament.
