Spain's lesson on fighting spousal abuse

"Before, there were no specific resources for domestic-violence victims. Now, there are," says Ana Herranz, a social worker who administers the Program for Abused Women under the direction of the Women's Institute in Madrid. "The fact that you can now denounce your abuser and get a restraining order, and that the man has to leave the house is an important change; it diminishes the degree to which women have to hide."

Better awareness of the problem has also dramatically augmented the numbers of women who report abuse; more than 100,000 have done so this year.

"We've seen a fourfold rise in the number of complaints filed by women in the past decade, yet just a small increase in the number of deaths," says Ángeles Álvarez, director of the domestic violence task force at Madrid's Women's Foundation. "So the situation has actually improved."

Nevertheless, there are clear failures. Thirty percent of the women killed this year had filed complaints against their partners. And the fact that Spain's death toll this year surpasses that of prelegislation years (50 victims in 2001; 54 in 2002), has many suggesting that the law has not been adequately enforced. Speaking at the Women's Foundation offices, which buzz with activity as staff members work phones at shared desks, Ms. Álvarez contends that the legal, social, and medical workers provided for by the law have not been adequately trained.

"We haven't seen real enforcement of the restraining orders," she adds. "And without enforcement, the orders are worthless." The jump in the number of legal complaints has also overwhelmed the 27 courts created to deal with domestic violence. "It's hard work taking care of this avalanche of abused women," says Ana Eisman, one of 260 court workers who earlier this month protested "intolerable" labor conditions.

"The government didn't foresee all the problems that would be involved in applying the new law, and we workers have been exploited," she says. "Our shifts are supposed to end at 3 p.m., but we usually have to stay until 7."

Yet this scarcity of resources may be less an obstacle than entrenched attitudes toward women. "We have to educate and reeducate an entire society," said Soledad Cazorla, prosecutor in Madrid's domestic-violence court, in an interview with El País newspaper. "We have to learn to believe in equality."

Ana María Pérez del Campo, president of the Foundation for Separated and Divorced Women, adds that Spaniards still resist taking domestic violence seriously. "Women here are denied credibility. For years, women have been denouncing domestic abuse, yet only 10 percent of their complaints are processed [in the courts]."

Margarita, who has lived free of her partner's abuse for three years, agrees that there is much to be done. "Domestic violence is a crime now," she says. "But that doesn't resolve the problem. The law is more talk than reality."

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