Rape - Spain and entrenched misogyny in the judiciary

[bluescreen]

In case this article hasn't been shared elsewhere: the prejudices it reveals are widespread and need pointing at and eradicating.

During the trial, videos filmed by those men were shown in the courthouse: we saw a young woman cornered and unable to react, literally paralysed, surrounded by five men, all older and stronger than her, in a narrow lobby with only one exit. She kept her eyes shut during the ordeal.

The verdict, handed down by the three judges (by a majority vote) stated that rape had not taken place – only sexual abuse, a lesser offence. It said the young woman had adopted “an attitude of submission and subjugation”. In Spain, only sex that involves violence or intimidation can constitute rape. One of the judges even claimed that what had taken place was entirely consensual sex. He added that these events had occurred in a “general atmosphere of fun and revelry”.
/snip
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/26/wolf-pack-case-spain-law-misogyny

I remember reading about this case back when it first happened. Horrific, and the judges' reaction is almost worse than the original attack.

That makes for difficult reading. It's unfathomable that they could be acquitted and I am pleased to read this in the same article:

"Pedro Sánchez, the socialist head of the new government, criticised the verdict while he was in opposition. This month he appointed Dolores Delgado, a feminist prosecutor, as the new minister for justice. She has said that what’s needed is a change of mindset as well as a change in the law."

I was disgusted when I read the guardian article, but not surprised. Having dealt with Spanish men on business they are generally misogynist and sexist. Only yesterday I called a Spanish company for a quote to do some work and I twice had to check my phone as what I was saying was ignored and I thought I might have accidentally muted the phone. It is endemic and needs a culture change. And don't forget it isn't just men who can be misogynist . . ..

Such a depressing article and such awful views about women.

I suppose a lot now hinges on what the legislature in Spain do next. I suspect quite a lot of countries have this sort of law still on the statute books because of a historical tendency to see rape not as a crime in and of itself (forced sex as a form of assault on a woman, an assault which is still a crime even in the absence of further violence), but rather as a crime against property (where the real victim is perceived to be the man who owns her).

Germany for instance had a law similar to Spain's until last year. You couldn't bring an accusation of rape without physical evidence to show you attempted to fight your attacker off. A verbal no, freezing with fear... no rape according to German law. The incident that threw this into sharp relief was the Cologne attacks, where suddenly the German population realised that, hideous as the attacks were, they weren't actually crimes according to the strict letter of (then) German law. The law got changed last summer - so now rape isn't the presence of physical resistance, it's the absence of "yes".

So the question is, can decent people in Spain make enough of a fuss about this case, and will the politicians listen to them and amend the law?