Women in danger

This has been a sad month so far in the south of Spain. Just in Malaga province since the beginning of July three fatal cases of gender-based violence have been confirmed. The body of Cristina, 35, was discovered at the beginning of the month in a well in Rincón de la Victoria. Her partner later confessed to killing her.

In Mijas, mother and daughter María and Patricia, 61 and 31, were brutally murdered before their house was set of fire. María's ex-partner was arrested.

Just this week María, 30, was stabbed to death in Antequera by her partner who then took his own life by throwing himself off a historical monument.

And those are just the sad cases that ended in fatality. How many women over the same period have been hiding bruises, too afraid to tell anyone about the hell they are going through.

Now we talk about domestic violence and gender-based violence. They used to call them crimes of passion. Mérimée's Carmen was perhaps the most famous victim. Poor bloke, she was leading him on; stabbing her to death was an understandable reaction from a man so madly in love. Really?

It's not that long ago that women were given booklets before they married with important advice. These included long paragraphs on how to keep their husbands happy. Tips went from keeping the house tidy and cooking delightful meals to not disturbing when they were reading the paper or watching their favourite TV show. Of course they always had to make sure they were looking attractive and be available for intercourse whenever their husbands wanted.

I doubt such booklets explicitly stated what the consequences would be of not following this advice to the letter. Just don't upset him...

Fast forward to 2026, a time when we proudly assume that things have changed. But they haven't.

Apart from the horrific cases that are making the headlines, women are being subjected not just to physical violence but also to psychological and sexual abuse.

And the younger generations are not free of the scourge. There is a quieter but frightening trend that involves controlling a partner's activity on social media. How many young women are not freely posting what they want for fear of how their boyfriends might react? And how many of them are convinced that is normal behaviour?

Now we all speak loudly about a problem that is no longer classed as a domestic affair that we shouldn't interfere in. We count the cases. They make the headlines. However that hasn't made the problem go away.

How many more women are in danger just for being women, for belonging to the “fairer” or “weaker” sex?