8 March 2006

LUGO — Traffic lights in one small Spanish city stopped drivers and pedestrians in their tracks for a different reason – the figures were wearing skirts.

To mark International Women's Day on Wednesday, they changed the green and red figures in Ronda de La Muralla in Lugo to show them wearing feminine garb for one day only.

All the 72 traffic lights in the town were changed especially to make a point about women's status in Spanish society.

"It is to make a point about the absence of female representation on the street and in town life, where masculine symbols are always adopted," said Luz Darriba, a feminist activist who lives in Lugo.

Darriba organised the traffic light idea with the cooperation of local authorities.

Last year, on the same day, she changed all the numbers 56 in the roads into  symbols of women.

Darriba, who was born in Uruguay but has lived in Lugo since 1990, has also been involved in trying to promote cultural initiatives in Lugo, which is in Galicia, north-west Spain.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news