“Bitches, come out of your burrows like rabbits, you are nymphomaniac whores, I promise you that you will all fuck in the capea! Let’s go Ahuja!”, this song (to call it in some way) is the most commented today and has put in the eye of sight the practices that take place in the Residence Halls. In this case, the event has occurred in Madrid. Specifically, at the Colegio Mayor Elías Ahuja.
Twitter has been the first platform in which this video has obtained great relevance, an event that has spread like wildfire on the internet and today occupies a designated space in the current affairs section of all general (and non-general) media. Also, The first consequences have already been experienced and the case is in the hands of the Madrid Prosecutor’s Officeas we read in El Diario de Sevilla.
The Colegio Mayor Elías Ahuja, details of the institution, previous controversies and outstanding alumni
First, it is necessary to know what type of institution is the protagonist of the controversy. “Located in the University City of Madrid and managed by the Augustinian Fathers, the Elías Ahuja is a male college attached to the Complutense University of Madrid”, this is how this body is described on its own website.
In La Vanguardia they go one step further and describe this organization as “one of the most elite centers in the country. The room costs €1,190 per month and it has a cleaning and laundry service”. In addition, they point out that the Order of San Agustín is in charge of managing the center.
A total of 174 students sleep in single rooms. Among the most outstanding former students we find figures such as Pablo Casadoas indicated in the aforementioned medium.
To all this, we do not want to miss the opportunity to make a historical note closely related to the controversy that concerns us today. Back in 2019, La Vanguardia echoed a controversial sexist text that Casado wrote in his time as a student of Elías Ahuja: “The digital newspaper Tide published the controversial text dating from the year 2000, when Casado was 19 years old. An age with which he ironically went hunting “wolves and foxes” and fantasized about being part of a superior race “.
This is an act of the Colegio Mayor Elías Ahuja
The chant includes Nazi salutes and Sieg Heil shouts pic.twitter.com/Unxsk5i9om
— AntonioMaestre (@AntonioMaestre) October 6, 2022
Also, It is not the first time that the acts produced within the Elías Ahuja open a public debate. Nazi chants and shouts to the sound of “Sieg Heil” seem to be welcome at the parties of said institution, as pointed out in Public. After these relevant data, we return to the present.
The happened
The released video shows several students from the Colegio Mayor shouting macho chants like “Bitches, come out of your rabbit holes, you are nympho whores, I promise you will all fuck in the capea! Come on Ahuja!” to the girls of the Santa Mónica, an all-female college located just in front. In El Mundo they add that it is “the rite of raising the blinds at the same time and imitating animal noises in front of the students of Santa Mónica”. Behaviors that are also added to scolding girls on the street, something theoretically normalized by everyone, as they comment on the ElDiario podcast, ‘Un Tema Al Día, con Juanlu Sánchez’.
A video comes to light with the same songs from the Colegio Mayor Elías Ahuja, but from another year. They also go to the Colegio Mayor Universitario Santa Mónica:
“Bitches, come out of your burrows like rabbits!”pic.twitter.com/tMdkzq6ZFK
– Today for Today (@HoyPorHoy) October 6, 2022
The images are a sexist attack carried out by men who, with many possibilities, will have positions of social responsibility in the coming years (see the example of Casado). The violent scene is unforgivable, but neither is the reaction of the students: “They don’t offend us. Poor things, it’s a tradition”, we read in El País. A passivity and acceptance that worry, and a lot.
The consequences
The measures have come quickly. At the moment, La Sexta publishes that “the management of the Elías Ahuja residence hall has confirmed the expulsion of the first young man that started the sexist insults”.
In ABC they offer more details, “the center, which is already working on the identification of those involved, recognizes that the chants between both schools are a tradition, although it limits the crossing of slogans to those in which no one is offended. “What has gone out of control this year has been the insults of that first person and the lack of respect,” says the deputy director, Álvaro Nieto. A weightless reason, since the same institution was the protagonist of a video published on Last October 18, 2021 on Tiktok with similar events.
Likewise, the Movement Against Intolerance has formalized a complaint to the Madrid Prosecutor’s Office in order to consider this act a hate crime. “The Penal Code expressly prohibits demonstrations and any organizational process leading to a possible illegal act that is held in order to commit a crime and punish its promoters,” said the Movement Against Intolerance. Information collected by Europa Press.
The reactions of politicians and journalists
Just as the consequences on the students have not been long in coming, neither have the reactions of prominent politicians and journalists. In El Periódico several words are echoed. Sánchez, for his part, highlights: “We cannot tolerate these behaviors that generate hatred and attack women. It’s especially painful to see that the leads are young people.”
Irene Montero, on the other hand, refers to the lack of sexual education: “It is the most obvious sign that sex education is needed and that from the institutions we stop legitimizing sexist discourses that deny violence and equality for women”. Pilar Llop, Minister of Justice, denounced in Europa Press a few hours ago that it is “verbal and gender violence against women “.
The Minister of Universities, Joan Subirats, dismisses as “unacceptable” the “machista” cries that he defines as “a form of gender violence”, news published on ABC. Zapatero has not missed the opportunity to express his point of view either, “it goes back to a state of no civilization, no culture and no respect for women”, we read in La Razón. Finally, among the opinion of politicians, we also have that of Inigo Errejon in the program ‘Better Than Tarde’, “We cannot tolerate rape culture, herds emerge from dens like the Elías Ahuje“.
On the journalists’ side, the words of Wyoming stand out, which in its program on La Sexta has told a truth like a temple, “Machismo is machismo even if you call it tradition”. Because yes, the “traditions” that harm should disappear, since they do not allow us to advance as a society towards a better future. In the same Show, Sandra Sabaté has stated that “The images are shameful” and that “This can be changed with education.”
Cristina Pardo puts the deputy director of the Colegio Mayor Elías Ahuja against the doors after changing her version of the “tradition” of macho chants https://t.co/RHrPOCVJdA
– Better Late (@MVTARDE) October 6, 2022
As a finishing touch, we could not leave aside the interview conducted by Cristina Pardo in ‘Más Vale Tarde’ with the deputy director of the Colegio Mayor Elías Ahuja. “Why was a decision made this year and not last year? Is it because it has gone viral?” Asked the journalist. “They don’t come out year after year, it’s the second time it has happened to us, last year some measures were taken and this year it will go further,” she replied in deputy director The entire interview deserves a few minutes of our attention.
Cover photo | TikTok