For four years, Catalan dance companies felt adrift, lacking a space to capture the attention of international programmers. In 2021, the Sismógrafo Festival in Olot lost its status as a strategic dance market—a designation awarded by the Catalan government to revitalize the discipline, boost bookings, and cultivate new audiences—and creators had nowhere to showcase their work and give it a platform beyond the national circuit. Now, this void has been filled: the Department of Culture has launched Catalandance, a platform that, for four days, from Wednesday to Saturday, invites more than 200 programmers from around the world to Terrassa, where it will present Catalan dance productions with the aim of attracting their attention. "During the 80s and 90s, Catalonia was a pioneer in exporting dance. Now we are trying to regain that visibility," explains the platform's artistic director, Pau Estrem.

Two National Police officers will stand trial accused of falsifying a public document. The officers reported and fined a woman from Terrassa for allegedly refusing to identify herself, which the prosecution claims is untrue. The Terrassa Court of Instruction Number 4 has decided to send them to trial after three years of litigation. Prosecutors are seeking four years in prison for each officer, a four-year ban from working in public administration, and a fine.

A 69-year-old woman died this Wednesday morning in a house fire that burned down a third floor apartment in the Castellassa passageway in Terrassa (Vallès Occidental). The Generalitat Fire Department received the alert at 6:19 a.m. and immediately activated five units: three water trucks, a ladder truck, and a coordination and command vehicle. However, upon arrival, they found the fire already fully developed.

The method of the crime, with a car stopping without asking questions and shooting at a target, already pointed to revenge. An execution traditionally linked to drug trafficking and often carried out by a hitman. This is what happened in the early hours of Sunday at the exit of the Chicago Latino nightclub, in an industrial estate in Terrassa. The man was shot five times, and the emergency services were unable to revive him. The vehicle, with a foreign number plate, fled. The Mossos d'Esquadra have identified the gunman, but no arrests have yet been made.

Two shootings in less than 12 hours shook the tranquility of Terrassa this Sunday. In the morning, a man was shot dead outside a nightclub, according to reports The Case and the ARA has been able to confirm this with police sources. The call was received at around half past six outside the Chicago Latino nightclub, located on Tàrrega street in the Can Petit industrial estate. According to this newspaper, the occupants of a car opened fire on the victim and fled the estate. They had fired at least five shots. Given the type of murder, everything points to an execution out of revenge.

Two young people have reported a leader and monitor of an evangelical religious community in Terrassa, the Samaria Church, for allegedly having sexually assaulted them when they were minors. The complaint that has been made The Newspaper The ARA has had access to the information, which is also directed against another member of the same religious community, who allegedly sexually assaulted them when he was still a minor.

The murder of sisters Arooj and Anisa Abbas – aged just 24 and 21 – in Pakistan has brought to the centre of Catalan public debate a reality that, here, often goes unnoticed: forced marriages and so-called honour crimes against women who dare to rebel. All this gender violence of the worst kind is too often hidden behind communication barriers and ignorance of the reality of migration. In the last thirteen years the Mossos d'Esquadra have detected 198 victims of forced marriages in Catalonia, most of whom were only between 13 and 23. Eighty-one percent of cases reached the police before the marriage went ahead, so they were able to act to prevent the wedding. But it is possible that this is just the tip of the iceberg of a problem that we have ignored for too long, since most of the victims are girls who were born in Catalonia or who have been schooled here and have lived here for a long time.

Shaheen Azra has returned to Catalonia. She is Arooj and Anisa Abbas's mother, the 24- and 21-year-old sisters from Terrassa killed in Pakistan for wanting to divorce their cousins, who they had been forced to marry a year ago. On her arrival, she interrupted the Pakistani consul to speak to the media: "I want to thank you. Thank you for letting me return and thanks to the Pakistani police, to the authorities here and especially to the Pakistani consulate in Barcelona for helping me". Thus, between sadness and gratitude, the woman and her youngest son, aged 13, landed early Sunday morning at El Prat airport, after an almost 24-hour flight.

A week ago, the day after Arooj and Anisa Abbas arrived in Pakistan, they were murdered. The two sisters from Terrassa were killed in a family home in Gujrat, Punjab, where their mother was also staying. When the double murder was committed, the woman was able to escape but fled without her 9-year-old son, who was also in the house. Pakistani police tracked down the mother, who the family also wanted to murder, Pakistani consul in Barcelona Mirza Salman Baig has informed ARA.

"I have received many threats, but I am not afraid of anything." Says Huma Jamshed Bashir, founder and president of the Pakistani Women's Cultural, Educational and Social Association (Acesop), shortly after organising a rally in Barcelona against the murder of two Pakistani sisters who wanted to leave their forced marriages. The protest brought together a dozen Pakistani women and this small turnout, for Jamshed, is a revelation in itself: "There are few because they are banned".

Sisters Arooj and Anisa Abbas (aged 24 and 21) from Terrassa, killed in Pakistan because they wanted a divorce, were forced into their marriages. They are not alone: Catalan police have detected 198 victims of forced marriage in the last 13 years. They are all women, mostly between 13 and 23, who were forced to marry a man against their will. Sometimes marriages can even be carried out online or by phone, as pointed out to ARA on Tuesday the Pakistani consul in Barcelona, Mirza Salman Baig. Social worker Ruth Rosique, from the technical team of Valentes i Acompanyades –a charity campaigning against forced marriages– explains that some victims have distance weddings, which are then confirmed when they visit their country of origin or their husband comes to Catalonia.

Abdul explains that the police showed up twice at the property and showed him the photo of the two girls. "Of course I know them. I've crossed paths with them plenty of times in the staircase," he replied. Still, he hadn't seen them for days and didn't even hear a sound in the apartment where they lived, as if no one was there. Abdul is Arooj and Anisa Abbas's neighbour. The two sisters (aged 24 and 21) were killed in Pakistan because they wanted to divorce the cousins they had been forced to marry a year ago. The girls lived with their parents and their three brothers on Historiador Cardús street in Terrassa, in a humble four-story block with no lift and a long steep staircase. The family's name does not appear on the mailboxes and this Tuesday, if you knocked on the door of the house, no one opened.

An emergency fast lane to guarantee rights and protection for minors arriving in Catalonia fleeing the war in Ukraine. This is the emergency device that the Department of Social Rights has set up for the reception of children arriving to stay with host families without their legal guardians. The conflict in Ukraine has caused, on the one hand, a new migratory wave in Europe and, on the other hand, has brought to the surface the willingness of many families to take them in. "We are a country of solidarity and this fills us with pride, but we also have to be aware that we have to do the job well because the most important thing is to guarantee children's rights," said minister Violant Cervera during an event in Terrassa, where a local charity has brought a hundred minors who already regularly took part in foster programmes with Catalan families.

In the last eleven weeks six women have been murdered by their current or former partner in Catalonia. Since the end of the last state of alarm, this number has increased, and this year so far there have been as many cases as in all of last year: a total of eight. The latest still does not appear in official statistics because Antonella, the woman murdered in Sant Vicenç de Castellet, is yet to be officially identified. The body was so badly burnt a DNA test will be necessary, delaying the process. In addition, the police have opened another investigation after a woman was murdered in Sabadell. The body was located on Tuesday at a home and the police have been unable to identify the victim due to the bad state of the corpse.