More than 200 Spanish women share incidents of sexism after Rubiales-Hermoso kiss row

In a sign that the Luis Rubialeskiss controversy may be developing into a sort of a 'Me Too' moment for Spain, more than 200 Spanish women have anonymously shared examples of sexism or abuse of power at their workplace. A nation-wide debate has started in Spain after country's football federation chief Luis Rubiales planted an unsolicited kiss on the lips of Jenni Hermoso, member of Spain's women football team after the country won women's football world cup last month.

Rubiales initially brushed off the incident but it soon assumed international proportions with FIFA getting involved.

The anonymous responses with examples of sexism and power abuse were sent after a social media appeal by Helena Legido-Quigley, a professor at Imperial College London who was working with members of Women in Global Health Spain.

Just within five days of the appeal, more than 200 stories havepoured in.

“I was completely shocked,” she said as quoted by The Guardian.

“What happened to Jenni has really created a moment for women to start sharing their stories.”

The women had detailed their experiences that involved lewd comments to inappropriate touching and even sexual assaults. What's scary is that most of them said that they were sharing just two or three of many such experiences, according to Legido-Quigley.

The news report by The Guardian said that most of these women never reported these incidents. The reasons ranged from fear to being clueless as to what exactly is to be done in such a situation.

“In several cases they said it destroyed their careers,” said Legido-Quigley.

“Some said that they were sharing this for the first time. They hadn’t even told their partners.”

For many of these women though the unpleasant incidents took place within seconds, the psychological ramifications lasted for a long time.

“I think what this says about Spanish society is that what we call micromachismos are normalised,” she said as quoted by The Guardian

“So these comments about women, about the way they look, there is this kind of humour, it’s normalised behaviour. Women feel uncomfortable but they don’t dare to highlight it because of power [imbalances].”

“I think this is a #MeToo moment for Spain, but we are not ready to give names and shame institutions. That’s the key difference. Because people are really scared of losing their jobs,” she added.

The initial aftermath of the Rubiales controversy shocked many. The federation chief initially brushed of the incident saying it was just “a little peck”.

Just months ago, 15 players on Spain's national women's team refused to play under coach Jorge Vilda. All of the players sent identical letters saying the situation was affecting their health and emotional state.

The Rubiales-led federation had shot back at the players and asked them to “admit their error and apologise”.

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