Thursday, June 10, 2010

Spain Defends Women's Rights: A Prison Sentence for Locking Up a Woman

Spain is making great strides in defending the rights of women. Recently, I wrote about the new statute adopted by the Aragonese court that will automatically grant shared custody in case of divorce.

Today, the leading Spanish newspaper El Pais reported the case of a 30-year-old man who locked his wife in their apartment against her will for two hours and a half. The couple's neighbors heard the woman's pleas for help and called the police.

Now, the Moroccan immigrant who abused his wife in this egregious way will spend five years and one day in jail.

I can only reiterate that Spain has to be admired for the way it is overcoming the anti-women legacy of the fascist Catholic dictatorship that ruled the country between 1939 and 1975. If only North American countries were as willing to defend women's rights as Spain is.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You should add a warning that your link is in Spanish. Have respect for your visitor's time. It's a waste of time to follow a link and discover that it's impossible to understand.

Clarissa said...

Seriously? "The leading Spanish newspaper" wasn't enough of a warning?

Anonymous said...

Spanish is not "impossible to understand", either. There are a helluva lot of people out there who understand it just fine, and you could be one of those people, if you cared to.

Flutterby said...

And even worst-case scenario, it's hardly a huge waste of your time. Even a hellishly slow internet connection would take only, what, five minutes? Not that much.