A shocking video showing more than 100 male students howling sexist abuses in the direction of an all-female college has sparked massive outrage in Spain. The incident took place on Sunday at the Elias Ahuja Hall of residence in Madrid.
The clip, shared on Twitter by Spanish politician Rita Maestre, showed dozens of windows opening all at once and revealing young men shouting obscene and sexist insults at female students in a neighbouring block. The video also showed one student telling the female university students to come "out of your dens like rabbits".
In the caption, Ms Maestre condemned the students' behaviour. "Then they will wonder why we are afraid of the street," she wrote in Spanish.
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Other senior Spanish government officials, including Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, also condemned the behaviour of male students. In a Twitter statement, Mr Sanchez said that the actions that "generate hate and threaten women" would not be tolerated. "It's especially painful to see the protagonists are young people," he added.
Spain's equality minister Irene Montero stated that the episode was the "clearest proof" of the need for education on sexual consent. "That way all the boys and girls and teenagers in our country will learn that treating people right is right and that treating them wrong is wrong," she said. "That way they'll learn about the culture of consent so that we can stop reinforcing the culture of rape and sexual terror that makes women into sexual objects," she added, as per The Guardian.
Meanwhile, in an Instagram post, the college Elias Ahuja called the behaviour "unacceptable". The university condemned the public display as "incomprehensible and inadmissible in society". The officials also added that they will take action against the students involved, offer public apologies and ensure the student body attends mandatory gender equality classes.
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Separately, speaking to Cadena SER radio, the director of the Ahuja Hall, Manuel Garcia Artiga, said that the sentiments expressed in the video "go totally against the values of the hall and are unacceptable and inexplicable". As per The Guardian, he said that he and a night porter had attempted to stop the chanting but had arrived too late.
Mr Artiga added the "full force of the hall's disciplinary rules" would be applied, and that those involved had been asked to write letters of apology to their neighbours.
