The Government delegate in Galicia, Pedro Blanco, announced today the Meninas de Galicia Awards, granted by the Government Delegation for the seventh consecutive year in the Community, which fall to Judge Fernando Lousada; the Afghan judge and activist Rahima Sabiri; the NGO Echoes do Sur of A Coruña; the association Axel de Lugo, the Alumar Center of Diocesan Caritas of Ourense, and the editor Teresa Zarataín, of Pontevedra.
Pedro Blanco personally transferred the jury’s decision to each distinguished person and entity, conveying the Government’s congratulations and thanks for the values they convey with their work and their vital example. Of them and of them he said that “they represent a feminist Galicia, which rejects machismo and the violence that is exercised against a woman by the fact of seal and that fights for equality in all areas”.
The Meninas Awards were created in 2004 by the Government of Spain and have been granted in Galicia since 2018. The awards select individuals and entities that stand out for their commitment to eradicating gender-based violence, supporting victims and fighting for equality and are set to celebrate the 25th International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
In Galicia, the Meninas reach their seventh edition this year after the determination of the Government Delegation to transfer these awards to the autonomous area. The government delegate will preside on November 22, in the days prior to 25N, the institutional act of delivery of these awards at the Hostal de los Reis Católica, in Santiago de Compostela.
Honorable mentions
The jury of the Meninese Awards also agreed to the award of five honorable mentions: one autonomic and four provincial. These mentions fall in this edition in the Association ‘Teenses for Equality’, of Teo (A Coruña); in the police member of the Family and Women Care Unit (UFAM) of the Commissariat of Santiago, Alejandra Domínguez; in the police of the UFAM of the Commissariat of Viveiro (Lugo), Maria José Vidal; in Corporal Cristina Rodríguez, of the Viogen team of the Civil Guard of Celanova (Ourense); and in the police of the UMarbal, Commissariat.
Distinction to journalistic projects
For the second time, the Meninas Awards include the distinction to journalists, companies and social communication projects in Galicia that promote the values of equality and the eradication of male violence. In this category, the Government Delegation in Galicia has the collaboration of the Official College of Journalists of Galicia, as an advisory entity.
This year, this special mention goes to journalists Susana Pedreira and Diana López, creators and promoters of the project ‘Women who think are dangerous’. This initiative arose in 2018 to reclaim the role of women opinion makers in the media in Spain. The project resulted in a professional forum of women journalists held annually in the city of Pontevedra and both told in the book 'Women who think are dangerous. Four lambs and a pandemic’.
BIOGRAPHIES OF THE RECOGNITION MENINAS 2024
Fernando Lousada Arochena. Born in 1963. Doctor of Law from the Universidade da Coruña. Since 2001, he has occupied the position of Specialist Magistrate of the Social Order in the Superior Court of Xustiza de Galicia. He is also, since 2015, associate professor of Civil Procedural and Penitentiary Law at the University of Coruña.
In her professional career years she published many studies and articles related to equality, sexual harassment at work and women’s labour rights, as well as occupational diseases from a gender perspective.
He carried out advisory tasks as a legal expert for public administrations and also participated as an expert in equality in various parliamentary committees. Among others, he collaborated in the work prior to the elaboration of the national and Galician laws of effective equality between men and women and in the drafting of the two Plans of Equality of the Judicial Career and in the Protocol of Action before sexual harassment in the Judicial Career, as well as in the instrument to make it effective.
Rahima Sabiri. Born in 1965 in Kabul. Judge of the Supreme Court of Afghanistan, she currently resides in Galicia as a refugee with her family. As a magistrate, she led anti-terrorist operations against Taliban and ISIS factions. This fact made her the target of these groups, from which she received death threats directed at her and her family.
After the seizure of power by the Taliban, and after his man and one of his children were kidnapped and tortured, Sabiri moved with his family in 2023 to Spain, where the government granted him asylum.
Rahima Sabiri has been accredited since this year as a victim of gender violence, at the request of the Government Delegation in Galicia. It is the first case in Galicia, and the second in Spain, in which this accreditation is recognized, with a social, economic and labor character, the Afghan woman persecuted for her status as a woman. With Menina’s recognition, the Delegation highlights the difficulties faced by Rahima Sabiri during her time as a judge and, later, the consequences of the arrival of the Taliban in the Government of her country, with the persecution she suffered for being a woman and also for her professional career.
Echoes do Sur. NGO founded in the city of A Coruña in 1991. Since then, she has been working in Galicia on programmes to eradicate violence against women and girls, with special attention to trafficking in women and sexual and economic exploitation. In these cases, the organization offers services so that women can get out of these situations of violence and rebuild their lives.
Association of Young Entrepreneurs of Lugo-Axel. Organization created in the city of Lugo in 2004. Since 2016, this association has been developing ‘Expressing Future’, a job placement program for women victims of gender-based violence. Until this year, the programme served more than 120 women in the province of Lugo, providing them with job guidance and training resources and facilitating access to employment for 50 of them.
Alumar Center of Diocesan Caritas of Ourense. Alumar began its career in 1999 in the city of Ourense as a day center for the social integration of women in situations of extreme vulnerability. She is currently carrying out an important work of social intervention for women who find themselves in contexts of prostitution, trafficking and/or sexual exploitation, who have in Alumbrar a place where they feel accompanied and guided throughout their journey.
Teresa Zarataín, director of Editorial Creotz. Journalist, writer and businesswoman. After a long career in the field of communication, he launched himself into the adventure of creating an editorial in the city of Vigo, Creotz Ediciones. Her works are characterized by careful editing and the recovery of oblivion and literary marginalization of women writers of the 20th century. Thus, in 2014, the Ellas vueling collection, which continues to grow with new titles, was selected by the Ministry of Culture to be part of the Spanish pavilion of the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Previous editions
These people and entities add to the long list that began in 2018. Since then, the Meninas Awards have distinguished associations such as Fademur, Faraxa (Vigo), Fundación Amaranta (Ourense), NGO ValoReSC (Ourense); Fundación Niños, Asociación Mirabal (Betanzos), Asociación Sí hay salida (Lugo); the foster homes of Ferrol and A Coruña; the Network of Neighborhood Women against Mistreatment (Vigo). Among the recognized people are the artist Guadi Gallego, the current Valedora do Pobo, jurists such as Judge Miguel Filgueira and Paz Filgueira, and the lawyers and lawyers who are part of the official duty in matters of gender violence. Finally, entities such as the Diputación de Pontevedra, the Equality Office of the University of Vigo and the Viogen teams of the Civil Guard were also distinguished in these years.