Women in the Spanish armed forces

Women in the Spanish Armed Forces are vulnerable and  need immediate and urgent intervention on the part of the Government.  While the Ministry of Defense, headed by a woman, Margarita Robles, looked the other way, the case of Cristina Valdearcos, a woman soldier who had been subject to harassment for three years for talking with the press, ended up being expelled from the Armed Forces.

In the video of the proceedings of the Military Tribunal, which was made public to demonstrate the situation of Cristina Valdearcos and that of many other women in the Armed Forces, one can see how the military judge placed in doubt Valdearcos's right to an abortion for medical reasons.  Valdearcos, of course, lost that case in the Military Tribunal, but later the ordinary courts found in her favor by means of a civil action in a Contentious-Administrative Tribunal.

This is only one of dozens of cases of harassment of women in the Armed Forces.  A situation, which has been recognized by the spokesperson of the Socialist Party in the Spanish Congress's Defense Committee, Zaida Cantera.  The Congresswoman complained that the cases of harassment against women in the Army continue occurring as they did when she was obliged to go to the press in order to denounce her situation.

The Government has done nothing to assist the female members of the military, who have been harassed within the Armed Forces.  In fact, the spokesperson of the Executive branch, Maria Jesus Montero, defended the excellent work of Margarita Robles in this area.