Postcard from... Spain

Get Married and Be Submissive by Costanza Miriano

These days, it is pretty rare in Spain for a book to create controversy, still less gain cross-party condemnation, from the government’s Minister of Social Services to the Communist-dominated United Left coalition. But one published by the Archbishopric of Granada’s own publishing house and entitled Get Married and Be Submissive – with a feminine ending to “submissive” in the original Spanish making it clear which gender the title is referring to – has certainly succeeded.

Written by Italian Costanza Miriano, the publicity for Get Married and Be Submissive on the publishing house’s website does not beat about the bush about its content: “Now is the moment to learn blind and generous obedience – submission. And amongst us [women], we can say, what is most solid and resistant always gets placed underneath.”

First published in Italy, Get Married and Be Submissive has sold 50,000 copies there. But a women’s demonstration in Bilbao on Monday culminated with a mass rip-up of photocopies of the book’s cover while minister Ana Mato said yesterday that the book “lacked respect for women”.

A press release issued by the Archbishop of Granada has insisted that Get Married and Be Submissive “does not justify in any way violence against women” – unlike, it says, “the liberalisation of abortion laws, as well as anything that weakens marriage”. Furthermore, the Archbishopric will forge ahead, it says, with the next book in the series, entitled Get Married and Give Your Life for It: Real Men for Fearless Women.