No more violence

Women cannot take any more violence. We cannot take any more harassment, any more rape, any more mistreatment. We cannot bear the pain, the humiliation, not for a few, but for half of humanity, of the systematic violence that has been exercised for centuries and continues to be exercised today against women.

When we are told that equality will still take up to 130 years to become a reality if we continue at this rate along the road that leads to it, perhaps we are not aware of what that means. We are not really aware that for more than a century, despite the fact that we live in a world that new technologies are transforming every day, we will have to continue to endure the most terrible consequence of inequality, which is the massive and all too often tolerated violence against women.

On this 25th November, not only we, but all good citizens, must proclaim our absolute rejection of this pathological phenomenon which today, at last, is beginning to be seen for what it is, one of the most serious and painful problems of our societies, a major obstacle to the real consolidation of our democracies.

A global challenge as serious and disturbing as climate change or the emergence of populism.

Women are against violence. We are against violence. Because all violence, all wars and conflicts end up destroying women above all. On this day that should be every day, listen to us, listen to the voice of women, who are fighting with words and reason alone against the unreasonableness of violence, and join in the search for spaces and ways of life that move away from confrontation, aggression, domination and abuse.

Join the struggle for equality.

This is the only way to build a better world, not only for women but for everyone.

María Teresa Fernández de la Vega