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A rape trial in Ireland sparked an avalanche of protests this week when a lawyer showed a 17-year-old girl's thong as evidence of her consent and got her client acquitted.

The reactions of indignation multiplied, especially on social networks where many women published photos of their thongs and strings accompanied by the hashtag #ThisIsNotConsent (#EstoNoEsConsent). On Tuesday, a deputy also raised her underwear in parliament. "It may seem embarrassing to display a thong in this incoherent way," said Rep. Ruth Coppinger, pulling the garment from her sleeve over the House Speaker's objections. "But how do you think a rape victim or a woman feels when her underwear is shown in court? " she added. He was referring to the rape trial in Cork, in the south of the country, where the 27-year-old defendant was acquitted according to Irish media. "A lawyer asked the jury to consider 'how she was dressed' the teenager, that she was 'open to meeting someone' because she 'was wearing a lace thong,'" Coppinger added. "You have to wonder if the evidence rules out the possibility that she was attracted to the defendant and was open to meeting someone and being with someone. You have to look at the way she was dressed. She was wearing a thong with a lace up front." explained the lawyer. After ninety minutes of deliberations, the jury, made up of eight men and four women, found the suspect "not guilty" . "Women in this country are getting fed up with Irish courts always putting the blame on the victims," ​​she said. As a result of this case, there were protesters in the streets of Dublin and Cork, and also in Belfast -in the British province of Northern Ireland- demanding a reform of the Irish laws regarding rape trials to prevent this type of practice by of the lawyers.

"Using myths about rape in a case of sexual violence is introducing misogyny into the case ," Clíona Saidléar, of the activist group Rape Crisis Network Ireland, told AFP on Friday. The culture puts "enormous pressure" on women and girls "to look sexy" but such behavior is often punished in rape trials, she denounced. According to Coppinger, items such as clothing, artificial tanning and contraception were used as "evidence" in recent rape trials. Women in Ireland flooded social media with photos of thongs to protest the court ruling. "Show that grandmother's panties deter rapists" or "My thong is not my consent" are some of the slogans that accompany the snapshots of Internet users who are joining this female revolt that perceives misogyny in a certain way of applying justice. The wave of indignation, however, is growing, both in the streets and in cyberspace, where the Facebook group "Mna na hEireann" (Women of Ireland) was responsible for the viral campaign #ThisIsNotConsent (#EstoNoEsConsent) . The head of the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, Noeline Blackwell, has criticized the "stereotypes about rape" that still circulate in the country's courts. The Irish Rape Crisis Network has recalled that the judicial system already offers training courses for its professionals to deal with this type of crime , although much remains to be done. Its coordinator, Cliona Sadlier, has said that the language used by the lawyer in the aforementioned trial feeds "misogynistic stereotypes" and must disappear from these processes that are so traumatic for the complainants. AFP and EFE

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