Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Spain on Wednesday, dedicated to International Women’s Day.
In Barcelona, several thousand female students marched through the city center, many of them dressed in purple and waving placards that read: “Feminism means struggle” and “We are brave and we want to be free.”
And in Madrid, demonstrators were preparing for the main march at 19:00 local time under the slogan: “We are fighting against the patriarchy … which is fighting ad nauseam against the rights, such as the right to abortion, that we have won. ” through the struggle.
Although Spain has had one of the largest turnouts in the world on March 8 for years, this year’s marches are marked by divisions within its own left-wing government over a sexual assault law that has inadvertently reduced the sentences of hundreds of sex offenders. .
On Tuesday, the country’s two ruling left-wing parties clashed over the law and proposed reforms after it resulted in reduced sentences for more than 700 offenders and sparked national outrage.
United We Can, which sponsored the new law last year, voted Tuesday night against parliament considering reform proposed by the Socialists to reinstate higher prison sentences for would-be sex offenders.
But the proposed modification was approved with rare support from the Conservative party leading the opposition.
Thousands march in Mexico
International Women’s Day demonstrations also took place in cities around the world, including Mexico.
Thousands of women marched in the capital on Wednesday with a heavy police presence. “I’m tired of going out every day, to work, to school and getting any kind of harassment,” said Fernanda Corona, a protester in Mexico City.
“I’m tired of being doomed to live like this every day because I’m a woman.”
A day earlier, mass demonstrations protesting against violence against women took place in the city. And they accused the country’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, of not doing enough to stem the rise in the killing of women.
Harassment and violence against women is widespread in Mexico, with an estimated 20 women being killed every day.