Minutes before the scheduled gathering at 6:00 PM, a number of students were already present near the student association headquarters.
While some attempted to enter the building to participate in the extraordinary General Assembly, others, carrying signs, chanted “an attack on one is an attack on all.”
Signs bearing slogans such as “Where is FAP [Porto Academic Federation]?”, “A skirt is not an invitation,” and “My tuition fees do not pay for our harassment” were prominent among the demonstrators.
As time passed, more students joined the protest, organized by the feminist student movement of the University of Porto in solidarity with the female students who allegedly were filmed and photographed without consent.
In a statement, Beatriz Morgado, president of the Feminist Collective of the Faculty of Law at the University of Porto, emphasized the need to address the issue.
“We stand in solidarity with colleagues who feel fear and insecurity in their academic environment, which should be safe but has not been due to the actions of institutional leaders and association officials,” she remarked.
Apart from showing solidarity, the feminist student movement demands “a fair criminal procedure” and the “resignation of those in charge of association roles,” added Beatriz Morgado.
Lea Costa, 19, and Bárbara Pinho, 28, joined the demonstration to support students whose “privacy was completely violated” and to protest “the lax attitude of higher institutions towards these situations.”
“Above all, there must be no impunity. What is serious about this case is the lack of a firm institutional response,” stated Bárbara Pinho.
The demand for an action plan by faculty management, coordinated with the University of Porto’s rectorate, FAP, and various feminist groups, was another key point of the protest.
Diana Pinto, a member of the Portuguese Platform for Women’s Rights, highlighted the need to combat “the sense of impunity” in the online world.
“We see this case with particular seriousness,” she noted, condemning the “social devaluation of the gravity of these cases.”
“The non-consensual sharing of intimate sexual content is a crime, it is violence against women and an affront to human rights, particularly within a university and associative context,” she observed, adding that the struggle continues even 51 years after the Carnation Revolution.
By 7:30 PM, students remained around the student association headquarters, where the Extraordinary General Assembly was still ongoing.
On Friday, in a message to the FEUP community, which was accessed by Lusa, director Rui Calçada explained that he is “closely monitoring” the development of the situation.
The alleged sharing of photos and videos of female students, taken without their consent, was revealed on Instagram by Inês Marinho, the founder of the movement “Don’t Share.”
“Several girls were photographed under the tables and, in succession, under their skirts. It was also discovered that there is a WhatsApp group with eight people where this type of sharing and other more intimate content is exchanged. This group consists of former and current members of the Student Association of the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Porto [AEFEUP],” exposed Inês Marinho.
