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heard before the courts.
Along with the fight for the rights of divorce, contraception and abortion, the Spanish women's movement is taking up the battle against this unjust law, and it is finding no shortage of causes to champion.
In Barcelona a demonstration more than 5,000 strong was held in support of Maria Angeles Munoz, a woman who is threatened with the loss of her daughter after her husband — who had deserted them several years before - returned to find that she had had a child by another man. When the police arrived at Maria's home to take the daughter into custody before the court hearing, they were blocked by a solid wall of Maria's neighbours who refused to let them pass. Since then they have kept an around-the-clock vigil to prevent a sudden raid.
The most recent news of this case is that Maria and her daughter have had to go underground in order to remain together as they fear an adverse judgement by the courts.
*I am also an adulteress"
In Madrid, hundreds of women have demonstrated and faced the fury of the capital's special riot police in order to show their solidarity with F.C.G., a woman who is on trial for adultery. Her husband is calling for her to be imprisoned for six years (the maximum penalty under Spanish law) and an indemnity of E50,000 for his loss of honour'. He claims that he found her in bed with another man - after he and two policemen had broken down the door to her flat — eightee after they had separated.
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Below, F.C.G. tells her own story, and sketches out the deep oppression that still afflicts Spanish women today.
*When I found out that they were asking for six years imprisonment and all that moncy from me — who barely everything he asked me. When the copper asked him if he knew that he could put me in prison with this accusation, he became frightened and took me away. He took me home, sent the kids out to the cinema, packed my suitcase and took me to the station. He got me a ticket for Valencia.
I called him from Valencia the next day to say that I wanted to come back, that I couldn't live without my children. He forbade me to return or to see or speak to my children ever again.
'I came back to Madrid, went to live with my brother, and started to look for work. I found a job, which I lost in the first year due to him and the scandal he stirred up over me. Not satisified with this, he turned up at my house each day with the cops, and wrote to all the members of my family saying that he had detectives spying on me.
*Was 1 not free even though we were separated? And the most cynical thing was that he was such a womaniser and a drunk that he had often come home in the small hours of the morning. But listen, this didn't matter to me. The only thing that mattered to me were my children. I would have done anything to be with my children.
*The solidarity demonstration of women in front of the court has raised my spirits greatly, given a tremendous boost to my morale. You cannot imagine how thankful 1 am for it. Thanks to this 1 can remain calm in the court.