The recent rape of two teenagers has once again shocked Spanish society. (Representative)
Madrid:
The lower house of Spain’s parliament passed a bill on Thursday that qualifies all non-consensual sex as rape in response to social outrage after the so-called Wolf Pack case four years ago sparked a women’s rights movement in the country.
The government-proposed law, known as the “just yes”, integrates crimes of sexual harassment and sexual harassment with deserving crimes such as rape, and victims no longer have to prove violence or resistance.
Equality Minister Irene Montero told lawmakers in Congress, “(the sentence) ‘just yes yes’ and ‘sister I believe you’ have finally become law.” From now on, Spain is a free and safe country for all women. “
The law, which has been in the works for more than two years and was approved by 195 votes in 3 absenteeism, is still facing a vote of the upper house and will come into force if approved.
Gender-based violence has been on the agenda of the minority left-wing government since the “Wolf Pack” case, where five men named in the so-called low-sex offense case were jailed in 2018 after gang-raping a young woman. Pamplona Bull Racing Festival in 2016.
The mass protests against their convictions in the wake of the global #MeToo movement drew international attention and led to an appeal in 2019 where the Supreme Court ruled that men who raped, gave them longer sentences.
Two incidents of minors raping an 18-year-old woman and two 12- and 13-year-olds have recently shocked Spanish society once again.
If the attackers are minors, the new law requires their punishment to include compulsory sex and equality education.
In another push for women’s rights, the government proposed a draft bill on May 17 to strengthen the right to abortion and offer Spain the first state in Europe to receive state-funded paid leave for those who suffer in painful periods.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and was published from a syndicated feed.)
