Virginia Barcones highlights the Government’s determination in the fight against male violence and raises its voice in the face of negationism

• The delegate of the Government in Castilla y León presides the gala of delivery of the recognition Meninas 2023, which allows to reward the work of 12 people and entities committed to turning Castilla y León into a territory free of gender violence • Rodríguez Zapatero, Menina de Honor 2023, assures that the most important task of any democracy is to advance against the discrimination suffered by women

November 23, 2023.- The delegate of the Government in Castilla y León, Virginia Barcones, presided this Thursday the gala of delivery of the Meninas 2023 recognitions in which she has highlighted the firmness of the Government of Spain in the fight against male violence against negationism.

The theater Apolo de Miranda de Ebro has been the backdrop chosen to host a gala in which a total of 12 people, entities and institutions working every day to turn Castilla y León into a territory free of male violence have been awarded.

A recognition that, according to Barcones, is especially important at times like this when voices are raised, even in some institutions, which come to question the existence of gender violence.

A “worrying” fact that adds to the increase in negationism among our young people.

Almost one in four young people between 15 and 29 years old believes that gender violence does not exist or is an ideological invention, as stated in the Youth and Gender Barometer 2023 produced by the Reina Sofía FAD Youth Foundation. In addition, the number of young people who consider that, although male violence is bad, it has always existed, is habitual within a couple and is inevitable is growing.

“This terrible pandemic infects generation after generation without us being able to tackle, to nip in the bud the male poison that has damaged the lives of so many women throughout the ages,” said Barcones, who recalled that 52 women have been killed in Spain so far this year by men who once said they wanted them.

A special memory he wanted to have with the three Castilian and Leonese murdered in this 2023. Paloma in Valladolid, María Encarnación in Ávila and María del Rosario in Salamanca, without forgetting India, the eight-year-old girl who was murdered along with her mother, becoming the first child victim of gender violence since a record of these data was prepared in 2013.

“Murder is the most abominable expression of male violence, but there are many more women, too many, who live in terror because there are men who consider them objects of their possession, slaves of their will,” said Barcones, who recalled that Castilla y León approaches the figure of 6,000 women who every year denounce being victims of gender violence.

There are currently 4,000 active cases in the VIOGEN System and 2,500 women need police protection against the risk of being attacked by their partners or ex-partners. But, in addition, one in two women has suffered some form of male violence in Spain according to the Macrosurvey on Violence against Women. Figures that, he remarked, show that this violence is not episodic, it is structural. “They are not violent episodes, they are violent relationships or repeated violence produced mainly by close men.”

THE WOMEN'S CENTURY

A gala that has made it possible to highlight the work well done and to highlight the advances that, in terms of equality, have been achieved in recent years, hand in hand with people, agencies and institutions such as the twelve to which this year has been recognized their commitment and their involvement with a Menina.

An edition in which the recognition Menina de Honor has gone to José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for opening the door, with the Organic Law of Integral Protection Measures against Gender Violence, to bring out many cases that remained hidden for fear.

Rodríguez Zapatero, whose work did not allow him to attend the gala, wanted to thank through a video the recognition at the same time that he joined the applause of all that associative fabric and civil society that have been fighting for equal rights between women and men.

The former president of the Government said that the most important public task that a democracy has ahead of it is to advance against discrimination, “being the most intense and serious that women have suffered in history, especially those who have suffered and suffer from gender violence.”

An unacceptable behavior, he continued, the fruit of a vile machismo, ignorance, inculture and lack of sensitivity. For all these reasons, he stressed the need to work to build a society of free and equal men and women.

Finally, he showed his utmost gratitude to the entire institutional fabric, starting with the Government Delegation in Castilla y León, passing through the State Security Forces and Corps, as well as to all civil society that, with their work in recent years, have put black on white in the fight for equality. “We live in the 21st century and this must be the century of women and their rights, the century of a just, democratic and advanced society,” he concluded.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The knowledge that there is a victim of gender violence is the starting point for the woman to find help and protection in people like those who make up the Viogen team of the Civil Guard of the Piedrahíta Company or like Luis Miguel Díez Galván, the head of the UFAM of the Valladolid Police.

Support also found in people such as Teresa Aparicio, the procedural manager in charge of the Office of Assistance to Victims of Crimes of the Courts of Soria, in associations such as Plaza Mayor, Salamanca, or Accem, in Burgos, and in municipalities, such as Puebla de Sanabria, which strives to provide housing for victims and their children.

A scourge, that of male violence, which is structural and which needs to be combated from education, as the Instituto Tierra de Campos de Paredes de Navas does, from awareness, as proposed by Adelina Rodríguez Pacios and her Equality Unit of the University of León, and Teresa Gema Martín Casado and her project ComMujeres, or from awareness as made by Encarna Pérez, the ex-subdelegate of the Government in Salamanca.

Values that have earned them the recognition of the society of Castilla y León in a gala in which the Menina de Castilla y León has wanted to recognize the collaboration and involvement that the Sonorama Ribera has had since its origins to combat gender violence, as evidenced in the last edition with the development of the campaign ‘Ser Libre. Estar Viva’ that was developed by numerous festivals of the Community.

A commitment, that of all of them, with Equality and with the fight against male violence, which aligns with that of the Government of Spain that, according to Barcones, now has a Spanish and Leonese face, that of Minister Ana Redondo “whose work in the Ministry, I am sure, will be very positive for women”.

A gala that was attended by the subdelegates of the nine provinces who were responsible for handing over the provincial recognitions, as well as the main commanders of the National Police and Civil Guard and numerous representatives of the political, social and business fabric of Castilla y León.