The failure to serve posthumous justice to the thousands of people — mainly women — persecuted as witches in post-Reformation Scotland “prolongs misogyny,” a Scottish lawmaker launching a bid to grant them a legal pardon has said.
“The only way we can move forward in terms of where we are with misogyny and prejudice in society is by fixing these injustices of our past,” Scottish National Party lawmaker Natalie Don said, ahead of yesterday’s launch of a Scottish Parliament member’s bill.
She also hoped that the bill could contribute to awareness of parts of the world where women and girls still face such accusations and their violent consequences, she said.
Photo: AFP
A pardon for the 4,000 people tortured and often executed under the Witchcraft Act of 1563 would be a collective rejection of misogynistic attitudes in the past and the present, Don said.
She believes the campaign for acknowledgment of the historical femicide has gained traction in the past few years because of its contemporary resonance.
“Specific kinds of women that were targeted, generally because they were a little bit different, they were poor, they were outcasts. We still see that in the modern day — although it’s maybe not the same characteristics — where women who do choose to be different or independent feel men’s anger,” she said.
When Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon issued a formal apology to those affected on International Women’s Day in March, she said that the “deep misogyny” motivating the Witchcraft Act had not been consigned to history.
“Today it expresses itself not in claims of witchcraft, but in everyday harassment, online rape threats and sexual violence,” Sturgeon said.
The launch was welcomed by Queen’s Counsel Claire Mitchell of the Witches of Scotland campaign, which has led calls for an apology and pardon.
“This is a way for people in the 21st century to acknowledge and to have their say in pardoning those who suffered the most grave miscarriage of justice centuries before,” she said.
Momentum for national acknowledgment continues to grow, with the charity Remembering the Accused Witches of Scotland last month securing an apology from the Church of Scotland for its central role in the persecution, and has now identified a possible location for a national memorial in Fife, the locus of much of Scotland’s witch panic.
The bill is launched amid a swell of grassroots groups researching local prosecutions and organizing community memorials.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in