Spain's Equality Ministry has launched probes into three brotherhoods in Córdoba and Albacete over potential discrimination against women in Holy Week processions. These join the Sagunto case, where members voted to exclude them. The Women's Institute has sent formal notices to the groups and local councils.
On Monday, April 6, the Women's Institute, under Spain's Equality Ministry, sent formal notices to the Hermandad de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores and the Hermandad de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo en su Santo Sepulcro, both from Aguilar de la Frontera in Córdoba province, and to the Cofradía del Silencio in Albacete. These were also addressed to the local councils, following complaints over women's exclusion from processions.
The Hermandad de Nuestra Señora de los Dolores y del Santísimo Cristo de la Clemencia barred women from serving as costaleras. The Hermandad de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo en su Santo Sepulcro restricts access to just 12 women in a merely symbolic role, without full rights or entry to the core group. In Albacete, the Cofradía del Silencio requires a minimum height of 1.70 meters for costaleros, which the ministry views as potentially discriminatory.
These follow the Cofradía de la Purísima Sangre case in Sagunto, Valencia, where on March 23, 267 votes to 114 rejected changing 'varón' (male) to 'persona' (person) in the statutes. The government has started proceedings to revoke its National Tourist Interest Festival status, and the Institute referred it to the public prosecutor, citing constitutional breaches.
Equality Minister Ana Redondo stated: «There is discrimination and a violation of essential constitutional rights and freedoms recognized in laws and case law». The ministry references a 2024 Constitutional Court ruling on a La Laguna brotherhood in Tenerife, which deemed barring women by sex discriminatory.
