THE mother of Spanish football federation (RFEF) Luis Rubiales has locked herself up in a church and announced a hunger striker over the backlash her son is receiving for kissing player Jennifer Hermoso on the lips during the Women’s World Cup medal presentation ceremony in Sydney, Australia on August 20.
Spain won their first-ever Women’s World Cup title after a 1-0 victory over England in the final, but their achievement has been overshadowed by the scandal that has trailed the conduct of Rubiales.
World football governing body FIFA has suspended Rubiales, who has refused to heed calls for him to resign, and his mother is now taking sides with him.
The mother, Angeles Bejar, announced a hunger strike today to protest what she claims is her son’s ‘inhumane treatment’, and said her strike would last ‘until a solution is found to the inhumane and bloody hunt they are carrying out against my son with something he does not deserve’.
“There is no sexual abuse since there is consent on both sides, as the images prove,” Bejar told Spanish outlet EFE as she questioned “why they’re taking it out on him” and what “is behind this whole story”.
“My son is incapable of hurting anyone,” Bejar added.
Rubiales, 46, has insisted that the kiss was consensual, despite widespread condemnation from Hermoso, her teammates, the Spanish government and football fans from across the world.
Meanwhile, Spain’s Labour Minister Yolanda Diaz said today that male chauvinism was ‘systemic’ in the country and had been shown in its worst form with Rubiales’ behaviour.
Diaz, who is also deputy prime minister, called for social attitudes to change more generally in Spain and for victims of sexual harassment and violence to be better protected.
She told reporters following a meeting with leaders of the FUTPRO players’ union representing Hermoso: “On Friday we saw the worst of Spanish society, of the structural machismo of this country.
“They clapped and humiliated and made fun of a person they had the obligation to protect under the sports law and far from doing that, they inflicted more damage, more pain, more vexation.”
