The victim of the San Fermín gang rape on the Sexual Freedom Law: “It is not my law, it is that of all women”
On July 7, 2016, when all the media began to talk about a sexual assault committed that morning in Pamplona, during the first night of San Fermín, no one imagined that what had just happened would change the recent history of Spain: the politics, society and law. From that multiple rape perpetrated by five men against an 18-year-old woman, which shook the common conscience about sexual violence, six years and 49 days have passed until this Thursday, August 25, 2022, it reaches the plenary session of Congress for its definitive approval of the so-called law of the only yes is yes.
And she says, that woman who is now 24 years old, who does not feel that she has done anything: “It is not my law, it is that of all women, so go ahead.” Pa'lante was always where they went. She and her family. His father, his mother. For the latter, this law "is the fruit of the courage, perseverance and dignity of a girl who did know how she wanted and could live without anyone judging her, and decided to go ahead so that we all become aware of the miserable path they have had and they have to suffer too high a number of victims. And we all have to change this together. To her alone we owe the examination of conscience that we have to do from all walks of life.”
That social examination began very shortly after that July 7, the first of what later became known as the La Manada case. And that citizen review went beyond concentrations and demonstrations: it became the origin of this norm. It was born from the legal battle that neither Ella, as her mother names her, nor her family ever abandoned; and of the social and feminist tsunami that for three years came out on dozens of occasions to accompany them, to demand that Justice be relocated, that it be adjusted to the current perception of citizens about that violence. From that rupture between the street and the judicial sphere, political changes began.
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