We are delighted to feature an interview with Spanish feminist lawyer Tasia Aranguez Sanchez. She is a representative of Contra el Borrado de las Mujeres (Against the Erasure of Women), an international alliance bringing together Spanish-speaking feminists in order to fight against the erasure of women’s rights resulting from the conflict between sex-based rights and ‘gender identity’ policies. Dominican writer and FiLiA Spokeswoman Raquel Rosario Sánchez interviewed her about her roots in the women’s liberation movement, her career as a feminist lawyer and this exciting new project.

Raquel Rosario Sanchez: Dear Tasia, thank you so much for granting this interview to FiLiA. You are a recognised feminist lawyer in Spain. Could you give our audience more information about your trajectory?

Tasia Arangues Sanchez: I grew up as a distracted, dreamy child. I was always in my own little world and this created problems for me at school. When I hit puberty, men started to show an interest in me, and I found a kind of personal validation in my relationships with them.  All my friends were boys, and they would often tell me that I was ‘different’ to other girls. 

Being cut off from other women turned me in the perfect victim. From the age of 14, I had lots of damaging relationships and was subjected to numerous episodes of sexual violence. Moreover, I read novels prodigiously and they would idealise this culture. 

In the world of literature, men have not only monopolised the position of author, but also that of the main protagonist – both of drama and of human excellence. The world of culture tells our youth that men are both fully rounded and fascinating. 

It was when I finished my doctoral thesis, which coincided with me becoming I mother, that I noted that women weren’t being invited to become fully fulfilled humans. I was experiencing a radical exclusion from society and realised that questioning ‘where are the women protagonists?’ was the only way to get the answers I needed.

RRS: I am very sorry to hear that, Tasia. Would it be fair to say that the passion for the law came to your life before the fire of feminism?

TAS: Yes, the law arrived first. I didn’t have a legal vocation when I started my career, but I found it gradually. The law is a useful tool for fighting injustices. I arrived late to feminism, and it revolutionised everything in my life. 

Two things lead me closer to other women and made a feminist of me. The first was motherhood, which was a huge reality check. It’s women who give up sleeping to care, who miss work to take the children to the paediatrician, who work double and triple shifts. Both single mothers and women with partners quickly discover that men often abandon their responsibilities. Every day, every hour, of every year, this abandonment weighs heavy on women’s shoulders. Even if you’re ill on a cold winter’s morning, you’ll need to get up at seven in the morning to take your daughter to school, even though you haven’t properly recovered from bronchitis, and you have a meeting at nine.

The other was experiencing endometriosis, a chronic, painful condition. One in ten women suffer from it, but almost nobody knows what it is. Why? Because only women suffer from it, and we’re accused of exaggerating if we dare say just how much it hurts.

RRS: As a legal professional, what’s the significance of women’s rights being based on their sex?

TAS: It means that the law isn’t blind and can see the everyday discrimination that women experience, simply for having been born female. The law acknowledges these injustices, feels our pain, knows how tired we are of this, and understands the rage that’s been building up in us. 

The law affirms that it will give weight to the size of this problem, which restricts the lives of half of humanity.

RRS: In your opinion, what is the problem created by replacing women’s rights based on sex, with rights based on ‘gender identity’? 

TAS: Every single day of our lives has been conditioned by our sex. If the law stops seeing this, it will be unable to acknowledge women as a social class and will be blinded to sexism.

Gender (feminine or masculine) isn’t an identity. Gender is an ideology bred into us so that each sex can be kept in its place. Beautiful, sweet, sexy, quiet, caring: these qualities of the ‘feminine gender’ are the qualities of service. Being strong, expressing your own opinions, not changing your mind, being brave: these ‘masculine’ qualities are those required to exercise power.

If girls reject their feminine destiny, people call them tomboys. This structural problem manifests in the body, in the individual, and gets treated with drugs. Rebellious girls rarely get to meet other rebellious girls with whom they could fight to change women’s collective destiny. On the other hand, by erasing sex and substituting it with identity, women are magically transformed into ‘cis-privileged’. 

Think of a marriage in which the wife has been the main carer of the two girls they’ve had together, and the consequent impact on her professional and personal life. The man holds a position of privilege compared to his wife. Suddenly, at 40, the man declares himself a woman and starts to see himself suffering a triple oppression: one for being a woman; one for not being one; and a third for being a lesbian. By contrast his wife is considered ‘cis-privileged’ (someone who’s had the great good fortune of being born a woman and lived experiences as idyllic as giving birth, endometriosis and maternity).

In the eyes of the law, that man becomes one of the world’s most exploited human beings. If his country recognises “free determination of identity”, he doesn’t need to even take off his tie or stop shaving. All he needs to do is express his feeling of being a woman. The theory of double discrimination is insulting, turning on its head the position of the oppressors and the oppressed. Meanwhile men continue to be the ones who overwhelmingly abuse women.

RRS: At some point, you decided to speak out against this substitution of sex for ‘gender identity’. What motivated you to go public?

TAS: I was horrified to hear the writer of one of the “queer law projects” that we are currently debating in Spain, confirm that his ultimate objective is to remove sex-based rights from law. Hearing that woke me up. 

In Spain, we haven’t reached this point yet. In our country, the Equality Minister has promised that men will be able to legally become women by making a simple declaration; with no diagnosis of gender dysphoria, and without requiring hormone treatment. Men will be able to compete in women’s sports and go to women’s prisons. In Argentina, they’re at the point of completely erasing sex. They approved ‘self-declaration’ ten years ago, and are now debating early drafts to erase all mention of sex in laws and documents. 

Proponents of ‘gender identity’ don’t care if women’s sports disappear, if medicine doesn’t focus on women’s illnesses, if electoral quotas disappear, or there are no longer laws against sexist violence.

Queer activists maintain that erasing sex in law will convert us all into ‘people’ – sexless. But as women, we know perfectly well that a male aggressor doesn’t need to test at our DNA to rape or mistreat us. Therefore, we do need the word ‘woman’ to appear in our laws to help fight the discrimination that we suffer. 

RRS: What has been the reaction of Spanish feminists to your opinions? What’s been the reaction from the trans community?

TAS: Contrary to other women’s experience, I haven’t yet been threatened, attacked or insulted openly. But in the dark shadows of the offices, I’ve been stealthily attacked and faced prejudiced. This form of exclusion and censorship is almost impossible to prove.

The ‘queer movement’ constantly censors. They have managed to introduce themselves into the penal code, and in Spain they are now debating the creation of administrative organisations, controlled by activists, which will fine people for comments that oppose their doctrine on social media. 

They’re getting to the extreme of “reversing the burden of proof”, which means that women will be forced to prove that our messages cause zero offence. In a display of complete fanaticism, there’s even a possibility that the resultant fines will reduce if we ask forgiveness for holding those opinions. They will also censure any educators who don’t agree with their doctrine, and want to extend their reach into public media communications, as well.

RRS: How grim. Where do you find the strength to carry on despite these personal attacks?

TAS: Meeting other women has changed my life. In feminism, I have found the most brilliant minds, the greatest humanity, and the most incredible strength. On balance, between the hate directed at me, and the love and affection I get, the love and affection win out easily. Since I started to speak freely, I am happier than ever, and I feel more supported.

RRS: Have you discussed your fears with regard to ‘gender identity’ policies with your colleagues in law? And if so, what have been the responses fellow lawyers?

TAS: I am a professor in a Faculty of Law. My perception is that most University academics are facing the other way, whilst queer theory seeps into their study programmes, pushes feminism aside in the fight for equality, takes control of specialist masters degrees; and applies censorship through the editorial line taken by magazines, conferences and Congresses. This manoeuvre is meant to take place fast, without waking up the opposition. 

Many so called ‘feminists’ are complicit, having allowed queer theory to slowly creep in through the back door. It’s creating subtle censorship and job losses, dressed up as bureaucratic tangles. The formal reasons given for these things hide the reality.

Occasionally you can witness this censorship striking openly, through public accusations of transphobia at the mere mention of biological sex. 

On these occasions, some academics will raise their voices against “the dictatorship of political correctness” in the name of liberalism, without acknowledging that they, themselves, allowed this ‘Trojan Horse’ in. Until now, transactivists have manipulated the situation well, not only sanctioning anyone who disagrees with their politics but discrediting people. In consequence, many feel that aligning themselves with trans activists will save them a whole lot of trouble and offer some practical benefits. 

However, they have been showing their hand publicly. Before they know it, it’s going to blow up in their faces.

RRS: Tell us about another project that you’re involved in, Contra el Borrado de las Mujeres (Against the Erasure of Women)? What is it and how did it begin? 

TAS: Contra el Borrado is a not for profit organisation created to prevent the passage of laws that will eliminate women’s rights, and to raise awareness of the importance of sex-based rights. 

It’s an organisation that brings together women of all kinds of political belief and professional profiles. Some are prominent feminist theorists, and others have important political careers behind them. We work in specialist teams of journalism, legal professionals, international connections, web content creators, graphic designers etc. Sometimes the organisation works as a platform for public meetings, for gathering signatures, and for planning other concrete actions.

RRS: Recently an official statement, written by the Spanish Socialist Party and addressed to its membership, in which they address precisely this conflict, was filtered to the media.  What is the importance of this document and what is the current state of the debate within the socialist party?

TAS: I believe this document offers us hope: the largest political party in government admits that there is a conflict between women’s rights and the demands of queer activists. The leaked document implies that we have been heard by some key figures in government, and that these people back our primary objections to these laws. 

This is the first ‘no’ that queer activists have faced, after years in which activist groups have passed laws through regional parliaments, without anyone properly reading them. The state laws that they are trying to pass, written by those same activists, are both absurd and extremely misogynist.  People will become indignant once these things hit the spotlight. Queer activists are trying to push these laws through quickly in an effort to circumvent the public finding out. But a victory built on secrecy would be a hollow one.

RRS: Regarding sex-based rights and ‘gender identity’ policies, how do you see the future of the debate?

TAS: Feminism will win. Women’s history is so full of pain that it burns. We have waited millennia to raise our voices. We are not going to allow a tiny number of men to reduce us to ‘baby makers.’ Women know where we’ve come from, and we’re not going to allow anyone to send us back there.

RRS: That’s very powerful, Tasia. What would you like to say to the English-speaking feminists reading this?

TAS: I would like to thank those English-speaking feminists for their tireless fight for women’s rights. You were at the vanguard of women’s suffrage, you have innovated in the campaigning against pornography, and now you are fighting with the same force and creativity for women’s sex-based rights.

Feminists around the world are closely monitoring the campaigning work you are doing in this area and what you are achieving. Your achievements will one day be ours too.

Thank you very much to Tasia for this interview. We would also like to thank our wonderful FiLiA volunteer who translated this interview but has chosen to remain anonymous. Thank you both!