The city of Ripoll woke up littered with posters of the main festival, which was censored last week by the city's mayor, Silvia Orioles, although strangers tore it down a few hours later. Many citizens of the municipality decided to take to the streets of the capital, Repolis, in protest against the censorship of a poster that was transformed into a symbol against Islamophobia and racism and in favor of tolerance. Some participants in the event said: “Either there is a party for everyone or there is no party for anyone.”
On Monday, the painter Yvonne Navarro was chosen as the winner of the poster competition of the Sant Eudalde de Ripoll Festival, through the votes of a professional jury and citizens of the municipality. But Mayor Silvia Orioles, without any authority to do so and in violation of the rules of the competition itself, forced Navarro to modify the poster. The reason: It featured a female character wearing an Islamic hijab, which the Orioles did not tolerate.
The mayor, who leads a xenophobic party that is also running in the Catalan elections, believes that the hijab cannot appear at the main festival in her town because, in her opinion, it is a “misogynistic” symbol. But the poster's owner has another vision. Navarro explained to this newspaper: “This number is there because I want the party to be inclusive, and in Ripoll there are many women who wear this scarf and I want them to feel that they are part of the party.”
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The initiative to hang the banned poster on Friday night sought to protest the mayor's decision. Another said: “I didn't vote for her, I'm going to have to put up with her for four years, right? So she's going to have to put up with this label that the city of Ripoll chose.” Participants in this poster. Members of different organizations will also participate in this protest, such as the Unió Contra el Feixisme i el Racisme or the Moroccan Youth Foundation of Ripollès. Omar Al-Abdali, its president, added: “We want to put an end to censorship and show the winning poster.”
After only a few hours of protest, the business owners saw how the posters that had been put up during the night were removed and torn directly from the walls. They point to the mayor and her accompanying delegation as responsible for the disappearance of the photos.
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