Spain takes aim at violence against women

Some conservative newspaper commentators have argued that men are also victims, since they sometimes kill themselves after they murder their women.

Spain's Conference of Catholic Bishops, meanwhile, issued a manifesto on sexual morality in February that blames the sexual revolution for the abuse of women. "The sexual revolution has separated sex from marriage, and procreation from love," it said. Its "bitter fruits" are "domestic violence, sexual abuse, and homeless children."

Feminists, including Fernandez de la Vega, note that Spanish society has gone through enormous and unsettling changes as women have strived to catch up to the rest of Europe. As late as three decades ago, under the Franco dictatorship, women were not allowed to open bank accounts, sign contracts or receive salaries without their husbands' permission. Mothers of large families were given medals; divorce was legalized only in 1981.

The post-Franco era ushered in a permissive era of tolerance of individual behavior, but certainly more for men. There is no stigma attached to men who have extramarital affairs, even men who are in public life.