No Pasarán: Defending Women Journalists in Europe

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project

Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/04/19

Grace Torrente coordinates with the International Network of Journalists with a Gender Perspective, advocating for gender equality, media representation, and protecting women journalists facing violence. Alicia Oliver is a journalist and researcher analyzing the rise of far-right movements in Europe, misinformation, and political polarization, focusing on gender rights and democracy. She has a specialization in historical memory, anti-gender rhetoric, and the impact of authoritarian regimes on democracy and women’s rights. Montserrat Sosa is a human rights advocate and expert on political movements, specializing in historical memory, anti-gender rhetoric, and the impact of authoritarian regimes on democracy and women’s rights. Grace Torrente discusses the unique risks women journalists face, including gender-based violence. Alicia Oliver and Montserrat Sosa examine rising far-right European movements, misinformation, and anti-gender rhetoric. They compare historical authoritarianism to modern political trends, emphasizing the fragility of rights, the dangers of denial, and the ongoing fight for equality.

Grace Torrente: My name is Grace Torrente. I am part of the Collegial Coordinators. I’m one of the coordinators of the International Network of Journalists with a Gender Perspective.

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Now, about journalists, what are women’s primary gender-specific challenges?

Torrente: Wow, this is a good question with a long answer. I’ll try my best. The challenges women face are different because they are not only at risk for being journalists but also for being women. So, there is a double burden—they carry it in their bodies and actions when they report and do their work. There is violence, and the attacks are directed at them—not just their work but their bodies, their voices, the way they act, and even their families. That violence extends to their families, including their children. So, yes, the risks are different, and that is why we are raising awareness and trying to talk about it. We want to address this issue and amplify the conversation. It is a conversation about what is happening, why the risks are different, and what must be done to achieve equality at some point.

Jacobsen: What was brought up in the session was Franco’s Spain. Another example that comes to mind is Romania under Ceaușescu. There are numerous figures in history—particularly in the 20th century—who explicitly sought to restrict the lives of women simply for being women, often using justification or cover for it. For example, under Ceaușescu, Decree 770 controlled reproductive freedom and choice. Doctors were required to monitor women to ensure they were having a certain number of children and to check whether they were pregnant. In Franco’s Spain, I believe someone noted that if a woman became pregnant, it was not just the temporary end of her job—it was the end of her career, period. This was the elimination of a woman’s professional life based on an assigned gender role in society. It wasn’t a matter of personal choice, where someone decided this was the life they wanted and pursued it. The state enforced it. Can you highlight similar contexts regarding the history of Spain and women journalists?

Torrente: This is not my area of expertise because I am not from Spain; I am from Colombia and Latin America. She can answer better than I can. 

Alicia Oliver: My Spanish is worse than everyone’s.

Jacobsen: What is the history of women journalists’ repression in Spain?

Oliver: Okay, I was explaining the context and rise of the far-right movement in the European continent. Extreme rights are growing in Europe right now. I don’t know if that’s of interest to you. It doesn’t matter. The only thing you must understand is that being there is essential. Ten years ago, anti-gender groups were almost invisible. But now they represent the third political force in the European Parliament, and in the case of Spain, they are also the third group in the Spanish House of Representatives. They are very well connected with the population. I don’t know why I’m looking at him; I’m looking at you. They are very well connected. They are very well connected with a public that is depoliticized. With a public that is polarized and depoliticized, yes, that doesn’t have political content behind it. They are also fed by misinformation and fake news. They are very well connected with most people, have no information, and are not interested in politics. They are not politically aware.

Jacobsen: Politically apathetic.

Oliver: Politically apathetic, exactly. So they have many tools to get to them. Ten years ago, they were minorities, and it was frowned upon to agree with them. But now, not anymore. And groups of the traditional right agree and rise to power, individually or as a shared coalition. So, in some way, they were ashamed to show their beliefs. But right now, even the moderate right, the center-right, has no shame in making agreements with them. It could be local, in the States, or even international. So right now, what we observe in Spain—and other countries—is disinhibition.

Montserrat Sosa: Can we say disinhibition?

Torrente: Disinhibition, yes.

Jacobsen: Disinhibition. They openly show themselves without any problem.

Oliver: And they have this disinhibition to make agreements with them. They are united, yes, but they are also very diverse. They have in common, let’s say, the hatred—the hatred toward immigration, mainly Muslim immigration. It’s the same. Well, it’s the same. The issue of all the anti-gender rhetoric they have against women’s equality and climate change. In those things, they agree, right? 

Even if they’re very different groups around the world, let’s say in Europe, they have in common that they’re anti-gender fighters. I mean, misogynistic, anti-LGBT groups, anti-climate. I mean, they’re negationists. How do you say that? Anti-climate.

Jacobsen: They’re climate deniers.

Sosa: Climate deniers, yeah. And anti-immigration, especially Muslims, are Islamophobic. Even if they’re so different, that’s the main thing they have in common. They have money. We don’t have women’s organizations. They have technology at their service as well. And now, they’re moderating their language and speech to attract a more popular population. They have a lot of money. They have companies behind them. They have resources and technology.

And also, now, they’ve been changing, moderating their language. I mean, in a way, they can approach… They’re no longer gangstalking aggressively use. They can appeal to regular people. And, of course, with the fake news they spread. And they don’t directly say, for example, that they are against Muslims because they are Muslims. Instead, they frame it as “they take our money, our jobs,” and so on. So, people think, “Oh yeah, that’s true.” They moderate their language and their discourse. What’s discurso?

Torrente: Speech.

Sosa: Yes, the speech. So, it’s similar to the Spanish Civil War because lately, in many meetings—both online and in person in Barcelona—I’ve noticed that they end by saying No pasarán. That slogan was coined during the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939 against fascism. And, really, not only did they not pass—they passed and destroyed. That is where the 40 years of Francoism and fascism come from.

She made that link with the Spanish Civil War or the coup d’état that Franco launched in 1936 because we were fighting against Franco for three years, actually with international brigades from here, too. And that slogan was created then. In Spanish, it was No pasarán.

They will not get over it. Breakthrough. But they say it in Spanish.

Torrente: Yes, it’s international.

Sosa: No pasarán. It’s more famous in Spanish than in English.

Torrente: People say it as No pasarán.

Sosa: In some movements, for example, here, I went to a rally, and they said No pasarán in Oslo. Because they say it in Spanish like a slogan, and No pasarán means they will not go through—the fascist regime of Franco and Hitler, and so on, from 1936 to 1939. But they did go through, and they suppressed us for 40 years.

Torrente: Our rights.

Sosa: Our rights, our democracy, everything. One thing you should know is that during the Second Republic in Spain from 1935 to 1936, before the coup d’état, it was a very, very, very progressive country. It is one of the most progressive in Europe and probably worldwide. Human rights, civil rights, women’s rights—women’s rights. Schools in the jails. In prisons. Itinerant schools. Divorce. Then it started to end in 1933 and ended in 1936.

Jacobsen: So this period, 1933 to 1936, was a period of removing rights?

Sosa: There was a fascist scheme. And then we lost everything. That’s why conquests—securing a right—don’t mean we always have it. Rights can be lost at any time. We must be aware because that shows that when you gain a right, it doesn’t mean you can take it for granted. You must stay aware because we’re always at risk of losing it. And we did lose it. We lost.

That’s my opinion, but many sociologists say that when a fascist regime lasts for 40 years, it can take over three generations to change. They behave as if democratic culture is spontaneous, but democracy is a culture. It’s not something you get suddenly. My mom, for example, still says, “Be careful what you say.” You know? It’s ingrained in the minds of three generations. It is not easy to undo that.

Jacobsen: So, do they have a false history and a nostalgia for a fantasy past of Spain where women knew their place in the home and outside the public sphere?

Torrente: Fantasies from the population?

Jacobsen: Make-believe. Dream.

Torrente: Talking about regular people, the population. 

Jacobsen: Regular people. Regular people. And I don’t want to call them conservative activists because that misrepresents conservatism.

Torrente: Yes. 

Jacobsen: But I want to say something like regressive activists who have this… So, like when the MAGA people talk about “Make America Great Again,” they have an image of the past. It’s false. It’s based on a fantasy.

Torrente: Okay.

Jacobsen: They say they want that fantasy to be the real past and then say we need to project that and return to it.

Jacobsen: Make America Great Again is based on a false history and a projected fantasy.

Torrente: Yes. 

Jacobsen: When they talk about going back to America, they show pictures of a nostalgic America that’s not true, that’s false. That will never be. I wonder if that happens, too.

Torrente: No.

Jacobsen: You don’t have this fantasy?

Torrente: No.

Jacobsen: Because it’s a very subtle thing. They say, “We hope the past was one thing—which didn’t exist—and we’re going to use that as the basis to make us great into that again.”

Sosa: Yes, very much. But that fantasy… it’s a great again. So they’re not living in… It’s a much more complicated thing in America, by the way. It’s very particular to America. But I think… I don’t know if I’m here. There’s no such fantasy because, at the moment, talking about Franco isn’t well seen. It’s not very well regarded. It’s not very popular to talk about Franco’s time. Even if people think… I’m sure some people want to. Some people. Vox, yeah.

Jacobsen: There were a few Nazis that fled to Spanish-speaking countries. They look like me. If you say that, oh, gosh, people are going to throw stones at you. For 40 years, many people suffered, including impoverished people and women. When your grandchildren pop up in Uruguay, Brazil, or Argentina, they look like me. They might start to question. “So what’s your past?” I look like a Mormon stereotype. Anyway.

Sosa: So, Franco died in 1975. No one killed him. He died alone, quietly.

Jacobsen: So you have a democratic culture.

Sosa: We have a democratic culture, but people still fear getting into it. We are still the second country in the world with the most mass graves—about 100,000 people disappeared on the roads—and they don’t want to open them. They say, “We have to turn the page,” but we don’t want to until we read it all. So it’s a taboo, but not for the people… Activists. But for the politicians, even those from the right, they say, “No, that wasn’t a dictatorship.” They deny it. Some people deny it was a dictatorship.

Torrente: You cannot call it a dictatorship? You’re saying the opposite of what you said before.

Sosa: That’s right. They’re selling you the dictatorship. But there’s no fantasy. The people from the extreme right—no, what happens is that democracies are in danger. So, we have to be very alert because they present themselves differently. They normalize that speech. She’s right. I was contradictory because I told you there was no fantasy about returning. But it is a denial.

Torrente: That’s different.

Jacobsen: It’s different. Denial is more straightforward. To concoct a fantasy is more perverted. In English, a fantasy would be like someone thinking they’re Elvis—someone who thinks they’re reincarnated. Like that kind of fantasy, right? You’re living in a dream. That’s what I mean in terms of the past. But denial, I think that’s much more common.

Sosa: Yes, but even though we have all the data and people still remember—both their parents and grandparents—they deny it. And people still have a neighbour… Once she was dead 20 years ago.

She had a big plant in the building. She put it there when her brother went to war to fight fascism. It’s the same plant. It never died because she consistently watered it until he came back.

Jacobsen: That’s not the way the world works. People don’t come back like that. 

Sosa: But can you imagine? In her mind, it’s not closed. It’s not over yet. So we need to close that. We’re just talking.

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