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INPRIMATU
The feminist Kalejira against sexual assaults in Donostia clashes with the Gaztelubide association
  • The dinner on the eve of the Virgin Mary has been sent by the feminist movement and Donostiako Piratak to several members of the Gaztelubide association for the indignation at the eleven sexual assaults committed last Tuesday, including two rapes. The Festara event, which is celebrated every year at midnight on 14 August, has not been able to be sung normally, due to the hundreds of screams and riots that have surrounded them to surprise. The motto "no unanswered aggression" has sounded in the busiest streets of the city's Casco Viejo from midnight.
Lander Arbelaitz Mitxelena @larbelaitz 2019ko abuztuaren 15
Ehunka lagun txistuka Gaztelubide elkarteko kideek 'Festara' abestu duten unean.

What happened at midnight in the Old Part of San Sebastian is not seen every day. The feminist movement and the collective Donostiako Piratak collided directly with the gastronomic society Gaztelubide, in Donostia-San Sebastián. Women do not have the same rights as men. According to this article in El Diario Vasco, they are forbidden to access the kitchen and do not allow them to be partners of the association. In addition, women can enter dinner at noon, on Saturdays throughout the day and on the eve of the parties. Otherwise, they will have to stay in the interior accompanied by a man all year round and warn of his march.

This gastronomic society is an institution in the Gipuzkoan capital and each year, for example, they themselves take the leading role at the beginning of the San Sebastian day’s tamborrada. However, after the sexual assaults denounced on August 14, 2019, it has ended in the spotlight of feminist kalejira, when on its most important night of Aste Nagusia: The act was about to start.

Once the fireworks have been completed, hundreds of feminist pirates have carried out a human chain from the Flamenka txozna to the dining area in the Plaza de la Trinidad. The day before, eleven sexist assaults were denounced and "if we cannot guarantee the safety of half of the participants, we do not want a party of this kind", they decided to suspend the programming of the whole day. At midnight there were scheduled to be casseroles in the Casco Viejo and a loud protest. The Gaztelubide Society is one minute from the Plaza de la Trinidad, and after the rumor that the mayor, Eneko Goia, could be present, the Protestants have headed there.

 

The San Sebastian Pirates have suspended their entire program, so the City Council has not taken any action in this regard. The concentrates have concentrated in front of the town hall, which has been closed down. Angry with the mayor, the Kalejira has approached Gaztelubide, about to start the act, to the surprise of those present there. A few minutes before the members of Gaztelubide started singing, hundreds of people, armed with sarthenes and whistles, have burst the party.

 

Seeing the tumult, the choir has advanced and sung its songs for half an hour, amidst the tumult of the street. When members of the feminist movement have climbed the stairs up, there have been moments of tension between the two bodies.

 

"In other years we usually have a truce with the Pirates to keep quiet while we sing; this year there seems to be nothing like that," said the director before starting the last song.

At the end of the act, hundreds of people have risen to the height of Gaztelubide and from there have continued through the Casco Viejo, warning the aggressors that they "will be in front of them". In the afternoon, the most massive demonstration in recent months has travelled the streets of downtown Donostia-San Sebastian under the motto "aggressors, your party has ended, women* pirates feminist self-defense".

 

After crossing Fermín Calbetón Street, protesters ended the protest on Ikatz Street with the song "Isil isilik dago". The video, by the hand of the journalist Irutxuloko Hitza, Iñaki Agirre.