In Spain, Catalonia rehabilitates “witches”, “victims of misogynistic persecution”

The Palace of the Generalitat of Catalonia, in Barcelona (Spain), in 2019. WIKIPEDIA / CC BY-SA 4.0

Tortured, hanged, accused of crimes without evidence: the Parliament of the Spanish region of Catalonia (north-east) approved, on Wednesday January 26, a resolution aimed at rehabilitating the memory of hundreds of women executed for “witchcraft” between the 15th and 18th centuries.

The separatist groups, the majority in the regional parliament, and the left behind this initiative believe that these women have been “victims of misogynistic persecution” and demand that their names be given to streets in certain towns in the region. .

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The witch hunt, which lasted several centuries, was particularly intense in this region. According to the local scientific journal Sapiens – whose investigations served, together with the research of the Barcelona historian Pau Castell, as a basis for this resolution – Catalonia was one of the first regions in Europe where acts of violence took place. anti-witchcraft, from 1471. It is also considered one of the regions where the most executions of “witches” took place.

The names of more than 700 women recovered

“We recently recovered the names of more than 700 women who, between the 15th and 18th centuries, were judged, tortured and executed”, thus indicated the parties that proposed this resolution, which was adopted by a very large majority ( 114 votes for, fourteen against and six abstentions).

The tragic lives and deaths of these women – denounced by their neighbors – will now be analyzed from a gender perspective, in order to raise awareness of their plight, as is already the case in Scotland, Switzerland, Norway and Spanish region of Navarre, details the approved text.

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“We used to be called witches, now they call us ‘feminazis’, hysterics or ‘badly fucked’. Before, we were talking about witch hunts and now we are talking about feminicides, ”defended Jenn Díaz, of the Republican Left Party of Catalonia (ERC), from the podium of the Regional Parliament.

The World with AFP