Papers for everyone (that is, everyone)

I remember that "Papers for Everyone" campaign from way back in 2001 very well, when undocumented immigrants locked themselves inside churches in Barcelona demanding those "papers" that allow you to work. And I remember it well because I did a gonzo report for the newspaper. The Countrywhere I was writing at the time. My feeling at the time had been the same as when I read in our diary that The Spanish government will regularize half a million immigrants Undocumented. Of that half a million, more than 150,000 live in Catalonia. On the one hand, there's a clear feeling that those who live here should be able to work and pay taxes here. I hope there will be another 150,000 self-employed workers, yes, because they will help pay for schools and hospitals and even train lines. And I say self-employed Not because I wish them any harm, but because I like to imagine that, among those claiming this coveted document, there are not only men who repair cell phones (which we also wish them, at least I do) but also men who write, or act, or teach dance.

But the photo, by Pere Tordera, that illustrates the report takes me back to the photos from that time for the same reason. In that distant year of 2001, those "locked up" in churches were, without exception, men. Men giving statements to the press, men allowing themselves to be photographed, lying on mattresses, men receiving aid from volunteers. I maliciously wondered: "If the men are locked up here, where are the women locked up?" Well. Those who, in front of the Pakistani consulate, are queuing to obtain this basic right—the work permit—are also men. There isn't a single woman, either. Not one. Isn't there a single Pakistani woman who wants to work? Is there no woman, with a family, who wants to work? No young woman, no old woman? None? And why is that?