Choose to Challenge
International
How these two women - an expat and a local did two centuries apart
The
OLIVE PRESS
Women’s Day
To celebrate International Women’s Day, we hear the inspirational stories from over a dozen expats from around the country
Your expat
voice in Spain
VALENCIA / COSTA AZAHAR Vol. 1 Issue 8 www.theolivepress.es March 11th - March 24th 2021 FREE
Big busts ONE of Europe’s most wanted fugitives has been picked up in Valencia city centre. The Dutch crook - said to be Holland’s ‘most wanted’ - was arrested alongside a pal who had links to a terror group that once tried to assassinate the pope. The dangerous felon, whose initials were given as E.G.L., had been on the run after the fatal shooting of a man in an Amsterdam car park in 2019. Cops also nabbed another Dutchman of Turkish heritage who had links to the Grey Wolf terror group which tried to kill Pope John Paul II in St Peter’s Square in Rome, in 1981.
Wanted expat duo tracked to Valencia, along with Spain’s biggest pink cocaine haul
...with an introduction from our British consul in Andalucia, Charmaine Arbouin
Haul
Spanish police working with their Dutch counterparts also picked up Spain’s biggest-ever haul of ‘pink cocaine’ - 11 kilos of the narcotic during the course of the operation. Other drugs including MDMA and heroin were found when cops moved in on the duo. The main suspect, aged 21, had disappeared from Holland after the Amsterdam shooting, only to be traced to Marbella when he appeared in a video clip of a well-known Dutch rapper. But there the trail went cold
By Simon Wade
until a tip-off led police to Valencia. He was in hiding with the
second Dutchman who was wanted for his links to the farright Turkish terrorist organisation. The Grey Wolf organisation
...and introducing our new Digital Editor, Fiona Govan, in Madrid
has been implicated in several murders and runs criminal networks across Europe. Both men have been remanded in custody.
All inside our International Women’s Day special supplement
Save our centre AN army of expats have joined thousands of locals in a bid to save one of Valencia’s hippest cultural centres from being forced to close. So far nearly 2000 people have signed a petition to help save the Casa Cabanyal cultural centre, which is facing closure. They are demanding the town hall cancels a series of fines - already totalling well over 1000 euros - issued for using an internal patio, which the centre insists is vital for its survival. Owners Paolo Cammarano and Alessandro De Cillis claim they have permis-
A special four-page pullout
March 2021
www.theolivepress.es
CAPTION TO GO HERE
One in five Spanish women gave up work due to the COVID crisis, while they also poorer and harder are than men, writes Olive working Press Digital Editor Fiona Govan
I
FOR INTERNATIONAL WOMEN´S
LONG WAY TO GO DAY...
N previous years March 8 a day when I would meetwas grandparents to toddlers hoisted with a group of friends up on shoulders, came together in a we would hit the streets and sea of purple brandishing signs of Ma- with powerful drid joining tens of thousands slogans to show others to mark International of that modern Spain means equal Wo- opportunities, whatever men’s Day. gender you are. We would don purple items of But the demonstrations clothing and join in the also unprotests derlined how that attracted people much there was from all still to do; women walks of life and across may now be the nerations – both men and ge- fully accepted in the workplace wo- but they are still men, boys and girls. penalised by a There was a carnival atmosphe- gender pay gap, which is not im- men is still recognised as a major proving fast enough. re as people of all ages, problem in Spain and the from Meanwhile violence we are against wo- witnessing the rise of the try’s political far right and counwith it a denial of gender inequalities. This year with Spain still in the grip of the pandemic, are no mass protests withthere thorities banning gatheringsauto avoid potential super-spreader events, but the health crisis has highlighted and even compounded some of the inequalities in society. Working from home has seen a steep rise in mental health with women bearing the issues of the burden of childcarebrunt and housework as they try to balance work life with home-schooling and care for their elderly relatives.
Pics are on the wall
See inside
sion for the patio, but an ‘archaic’ law is forcing it to shut. Under the petition headline: ‘Avoid the closure of Casa Cabanyal’ the owners have asked for local community to help them.
A SMALL village in ed the skills of twodeep inland Malaga has enlistwhitewashed walls local artists to transform the into a tribute to rural across the ages. women In a project entitled rapher Ana Becerra ‘Saucedeñas’, Ronda photogtaken to Villanueva and artist Selector Marx have Residents awoke lastdel Rosario. week to large scale white collages of images black of local rural women and blazoned on walls of em“The women on the municipal buildings. are entrepreneurs, photographs are women who who cultivated creativity had a history of self-improvem or who ent” said Becerra.
When Spain went into lockdown a year ago, gender violence soared with the authorities reporting an 18% rise in calls ring the first fortnight alone. duA survey conducted by DYM in
Important day Charmaine Arbouin, British Consul for Andalusia, Canary Islands, Ceuta &
Melilla. Based in women in managerial positions Malaga she covers remains around a third of that of the region of Spain men with the numbers dropping even further as careers progress. that has the largest Spain’s female executives concentration of British 15.1 percent less than their earn residents counterparts, although this male below the EU average is just salary gap of 16 percent according “International Women’s to the latest EU data from 2017. Day is an opportunity the run up to Women’s to Day this This inequality is highlighted celebrate the achieveyear revealed that 7% of in women the statement issued ments of women - both had suffered physical or by psycho- government on March Spain’s past and present; those logical abuse from men 8: “Woduring men in Spain work who have shaped 2020. more than and transformed men our world, And most alartoday, but whether that be politithey are poorer.” mingly of all, accally or in the fields Of course there cording to the laFIVE LINERS science and culture. of are still reasons test data, women it’s also a moment toBut xxxxxxx to be positive remade up 93% of flect on what still needs and to those who gave celebrate xxxxxxxxx to be done and that’s just how far woup employment why this year’s theme xxxxxxxx men have come during 2020 in of Choose to Challenge in Spain. Spain... citing camatters. We must xxxxxxxxx all Spain may not ring for minors, choose to call out bias have had a feand inequality, so that elderly or sick remale prime we have even more great latives as the main reasons. nister but it has the largest mifemale achievers to That is one in five women, share accor- of women in any European ebrate in the future.” celding to a survey by online lecom- gislature with women munity MalasMadres. representing 47 percent of elected During the second quarter MPs, of last a bigger proportion year, a period that coincided of female with lawmakers than even Sweden. Spain’s strict lockdown 61,000 More than half of Pedro Sanwomen gave up their jobs to chez’s cabinet comprises care for others compared woto just men – each one impressively 6,500 men. qualified for their role – And when it comes to with wothe kplace itself, the proportionwor- men holding key ministerial poof sitions including Foreign Minister and Health Minister. We’ve come a long way the end of the dictatorship since a woman had to have when her father’s or husband’s permission to travel and couldn’t open a bank account. But there’s no room for complacency, we still have a long long way to go.
Tel: 952 147 834
See page 19
952 147 834
TM
See page 10 for full story
* O f f e r
v a l i d
f o r
n e w
c u s t o m e r s
o n l y .
S u b j e c t
t o
c o n d i t i o n s .
E n d s
3 1 / 1 2 / 1 9 .