Ban ‘invasive’ flirting, says Spanish expert

FLIRTATIOUS remarks should be banned, said Head of the Observatory on Gender-based Violence in Spain, Angeles Carmona.

Even if they are flattering, flirtatious remarks represented an invasion to a woman’s privacy and no one had the right to comment on a woman’s physical appearance, she said during an interview granted to radio station RNE.

In cities like Cairo in Egypt, women wear headphones and earplugs so they would not have to hear those kinds of comments, she commented. “Even though society does not frown upon flirtatious remarks, they have to be eliminated and women should be respected even more,” she said.

During her radio interview, she addressed the complaints lodged for gender-based violence in Spain saying the percentage of false complaints is a mere 0.1 per cent. The fact that there are people who believe many women lie when they say they have fallen victim to violence at the hands of their husbands or partners goes to show part of society still is reluctant to take measures aimed at eradicating domestic violence.

Piropos, as comments intended to be flirtatious are called in Spanish, are very common in South America and in Spain, though to a lesser degree.