SEVERAL thousand demonstrators massed in Barcelona yesterday for a socially distanced International Women’s Day march after a day of national rallies except in Madrid, where gatherings were banned over the virus.

Wearing purple masks and brandishing placards with purple slogans reading “No means no” and “The real pandemic is machismo”, thousands of women packed the Barcelona’s Paseo de Gracia boulevard, many chanting “Long live the feminist struggle”, an AFP correspondent said. 

“The pandemic has made the differences clearer. Who’s been left to look after everyone at home? Who’s had problems going back to work?” asked Alys Samson, 29. 

“It’s time for us to make our voices heard in the face of the far-right violence, we have to find ways to stand up for ourselves and end the machismo and racism that’s growing everywhere.”

Other purple rallies also took place in the southern city of Seville, in the eastern coastal city of Valencia and dozens of other towns and cities. 

Despite the ban on demonstrations in Madrid, more than 100 people gathered in the city’s central Puerta del Sol square.

The rally took place peacefully without any intervention from the police, an AFP correspondent said. 

Madrid still has one of the country’s highest rates of Covid-19 infections and last week, the Spanish government imposed a ban on all such gatherings in the capital for International Women’s Day. 

Last year, more than 100,000 people hit the streets of Madrid, including three ministers who subsequently tested positive for Covid-19, just days before the government imposed one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns as infections and deaths soared. – AFP, March 9, 2021.