The Ministry of Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts, the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory, and the Ministry of Equality are working on an act of reparation for the victims of the Women’s Protection Board for next September, as announced by the director of the Women’s Institute, Cristina Hernández.
This was revealed at the ‘Meeting for the Memory of the Survivors of the Women’s Protection Board’, held at the Women’s Institute headquarters, in recognition of the victims of this institution active during the Franco dictatorship and entrusted to some religious congregations.
«This meeting forces us to confront the violence that was exerted against thousands of women for not fitting within the narrow margins of what the regime considered a ‘decent woman’. The Women’s Protection Board was punishment, control, stigmatization, confinement, forced labor, separation of mothers and children, and a pedagogy of fear,» warned Hernández.
In addition, the meeting included a panel discussion with the writer and survivor of the Women’s Protection Board, Consuelo García del Cid; the doctor in Contemporary History and author of the doctoral thesis ‘The women’s protection board: prostitution, morality and state intervention during Francoism’, Carmen Guillén; and the anthropologist and Sociology professor, Ana Martínez.
Recently, the Spanish Conference of Religious (CONFER), an institution representing more than 400 congregations and about 32,000 religious men and women, held a public act of apology to women who passed through the Women’s Protection Board centers.
During that event, attended by the Minister of Equality, Ana Redondo, and the Podemos MEP and former minister Irene Montero, the survivors expressed that «forgiveness» is not enough for them and demanded «truth, justice, and reparation.»
Furthermore, after describing the practices they were subjected to, such as «exploitation, extreme religious indoctrination, or beatings,» survivor Consuelo García del Cid pointed out that democracy owes them «ten years of life» and that «the responsibility lies with the Government of Spain, the Ministry of Justice.»
FUENTE