A video that circulated on social media sparked a debate in Spain about violence against women. It shows how dozens of young people shout sexist abuse and threaten their peers in the building across the street from the windows of a multi-story student residence in Madrid.
The scenes were “despicable,” University Minister Joan Subirats said on Friday. With the exception of the right-wing populist Vox, all the major parties immediately condemned the action in the strongest possible terms. The Public Ministry of Madrid announced investigations into a possible “hate crime”.
Meanwhile, the fact that some students at the affected and renowned Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) played down the importance of the scandal also caused great consternation. “They had no bad intentions,” said one young woman, for example, from the television channel RTVE. It is a “tradition”, a “rite” of the university, explained others. Worse still, she has tried numerous politicians, spokespersons for women’s associations and media commentators.
“This shows how deeply rooted rape culture is in our society,” lamented Yolanda Besteiro, president of the Federation of Progressive Women (Federación Mujeres Progresistas). “We are bullied, insulted, denigrated.” Violence against women is “normalized and trivialized”. An RTVE commentator said, “And these are our elites of the future.”
The UCM has since announced that the first students identified have been expelled from the university. There will be more disciplinary measures and consequences, he said.
As the daily La Vanguardia reports, this is not the first time that university students have made sexist comments.
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Spain only tightened its sex crimes law in August. The new law criminalizes “intimidating” compliments and the distribution of sex videos, among other things. With its initiative, the left-wing government has reacted to several sensational cases of gang rape in which the perpetrators have escaped with light sentences in recent years. Equal Opportunities Minister Irene Montero said at the time that “rape culture” and “sexual terror” would come to an end.