Imogen Calderwood
SPAIN’S gender-violence rate may be the fourth lowest in Europe, according to a ground-breaking new study, but the results are still shocking.
A massive 84% of Spanish women believe that gender-violence is a serious problem in this country – the sixth highest figure in the whole of Europe.
One in three European women have experienced violence, either physical or sexual, since the age of 15 – a total of 62 million women.
The percentage of women who reported experiencing violence in Spain is smaller than the European average, but at 22% is still significant.
Reports of domestic violence followed a similar pattern, with 13% of Spanish women abused by a former or current partner, compared to the European average of 22%.
But with 15 reports of domestic murder in Spain already this year – and two in two days in Andalucia – violence against women is still far too common.
The report reveals ‘a picture of extensive abuse’ that affects millions of women across Europe, but is ‘systematically under-reported to the authorities’.
Blanca Tapia, a spokesperson for the FRA, said that the report highlights that ‘women are not safe, either at home or at work’.
The survey, conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), asked 42,000 women aged between 18 and 74 about their experiences of physical, sexual and psychological violence.
This article is nowhere near as extensive as the one in the Guardian. Denmark comes top of the table but that might be because Danish women will put up with less than Spanish women, whatever violence against women is’nt punished nearly as severely as it should be – why not strip these males (let’s not call them men) and give them a punishment beating in public. Then when the fist is clenched or the kick aimed they remember what happened to others will happen to them – it’s called conditional therapy and it works with bullies and cowards. When murder is the case they could be used as organ donors, problem is most judges are men and come from privileged backgrounds – don’t for a moment think that violence against women happens only lower down the social scale.
There is another form of violence, which though showing no physical scars, may be even worse – psychological violence. I wonder how Spain and other countries would fare in such studies. In any case being ranked as the fourth lowest is nothing to brag about. It could mean that women fear even reporting the violence. How many women do not report being victims of violence at home or at work or elsewhere because of the stigma attached and prefer to live with their pain? Zero violence against women is what every country should aim for be it physical, sexual or psychological. That would be something to brag about.