The decision by a Spanish Catholic association to continue excluding women from its Easter processions has reopened a debate about female involvement in such events and could lead to it being sanctioned by the central government.
Every Easter across Spain groups of men known as cofradías, or brotherhoods, carry ornate religious floats through towns and villages as crowds watch.
Earlier this week members of the Brotherhood of Holy Week of Sagunto voted on whether to allow women to take part in the carrying of their float. This followed growing pressure for a change to a tradition that has been observed in the eastern Mediterranean town since the late 15th century.
The result of the vote was 114 in favour of the change and 267 against, ensuring that women, who are involved in other ways such as helping to prepare the garments of the men who carry the float, remain barred from taking part in the event itself.
RM Block
“It’s unbelievable that we are in 2026 and this door to equality remains closed,” said Blanca Ribelles, of an organisation that had been campaigning for women’s participation.
“It’s like bashing your head against a wall,” she said. “We are disappointed because we’ve missed an historic chance to change things from the inside.”
One member of the brotherhood who supported the inclusion of women, Albert Llueca, said the arguments against the change had been thin.
“If there had been any coherent reason to prevent women from taking part, on an equal footing, we would have heard them,” he said. “But it’s just silence and ‘it’s always been like this’, which, translated, means ‘because we don’t want it to change’.”
Those in the brotherhood who did not want to allow women to participate have barely spoken to the media since the vote.
[ How Spain’s Pedro Sánchez became Trump’s fiercest critic in EuropeOpens in new window ]
This is the third ballot on the matter the town has held since 1999, when only nine members voted in favour of including women.
In 2024 the Spanish Constitutional Court ruled that the male-only tradition observed by a Catholic brotherhood in the town of La Laguna, in Tenerife, violated the rights not to be discriminated against and of free association of women who wanted to join. That ruling has been appealed and is now before the European Court of Human Rights.
The brotherhood of Sagunto, which has a population of 73,000, is also facing criticism from the left-wing central government, which champions gender equality.
“Holy Week must be egalitarian,” said the equality minister, Ana Redondo. “We will act.”
One action the government is considering is to strip Sagunto’s Holy Week procession of its official designation as a Fiesta of National Tourist Interest. That status gives the town access to subsidies and means it is promoted internationally as a tourist destination.
